Studies On The Chemical Constituents Of Artemisia Anomala

Artemisia anomala S.Moore,known as Nan-Liu-Ji-Nu in Chinese,is a perennial herbaceous plant that belongs to the family of Compositae.It grows mainly on the roadside,hillside and forest edges with a distribution in most southern areas of China.In the medicinal classic “Bencao Gangmu Shiyi ”,written by Zhao Xuemin in Qing Dynasty,A.anomala was recorded as a herbal medicine with properties “bitter,warm” and used as wound-healing,blood stasis-removing,menstrual flow-restoring and digestion-promoting reagents.Its whole plant has been commonly used for the treatment of acute icteric hepatitis,toothache,eczema and traumatic hemorrhage,etc.Due to its high therapeutic value,unique clinical efficacy and pravelent application,a systematic investigation was carried out on the chemical constituents of the whole plant of A.anomala.A total of 45 compounds,including 19 new compounds,were isolated from this plant through column chromatographies over MCI,silica gel,Sephadex LH-20,semi-preparative HPLC,and preparative HPLC.Their structures were determined on the basis of spectroscopic methods including 1D and 2D NMR,EI/MS,ESI/MS,IR,optical rotation,ECD,and single crystal X-ray diffraction.The structures of the isolates involve sesquiterpenoids,ent-clerodane diterpenoids,ent-kurane diterpenoids,and lignans.The isolated sesquiterpenoids(10-14,19-21)and kurane diterpenoids were evaluated for their cytotoxic effects on HepG2 and A549 cancer cell lines.Compounds 20 and 21 showed significant inhibitions against HepG2 and A549 cancer cell lines.