Studies On The Antitumor Constituents From The Roots Of Goniothalamus Cheliensis And Uvaria Macrophylla

Goniothalamus cheliensis and Uvaria macrophylla belong to the genera Goniothalamus and Uvaria of the family Annonaceae respectively. Both of them are tropical shrubs, widely distributed in Hainan, Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunan provinces, southern China and used as antimalaria, pesticidal, anticancer agents and antidote in Chinese folk medicine. It is well known that natural products still constitute an indispensable pool of innovative lead compounds for the development of new drugs due to its tremendous diversity in biology and chemical structure. Up to now, it has been being the highlight on which worldwide biologists and chemists focus to seek for new antitumour agents and bioactive lead compounds from plant sources. The titled two plants were chosen as the subjects of our investigation due to the significant cytotoxicities observed for the 95% EtOH extract against human cancer cell lines in preliminary biological screening procedure.Bioassy-guided fractionation of an EtOH extract of the roots of Goniothalamus cheliensis led to the isolation of forty-three compounds. Their structures were elucidated or identified by interpretation of spectra (IR, UV, [α], 1D and 2D NMR, MS, and X-ray) and chemical evidences. These compounds were attributed to six classes of chemical structures: styryllactones, dihydroxyflavones, alkaloids, organic acids, ceramide and goniolactones, among which isogoniopyrone, 8-acetyl-9-deoxygoniopypyrone, goniofufurone acetonide, gonioquinone, and goniolactones A-F were new compounds, especially,...