1 Studies On The Chemical Constituents Of Alpinia Officinarum Hance 2 Studies On The Lipophilic Chemical Constitutes Of Euphorbia Soongarica Boiss

1. Studies on the Chemical Constituents of Alpiniaofficinarum Hance.Alpinia officinarum Hance. belongs to the Zingiberaceae family, Alpinia genus.Radix Alpinia officinarum recorded in China Pharmacopoeia is the rhizome of Alpiniaofficinarum Hance (Zingiberaceae) which has been used as a traditional medicine inChina for relieving stomachache, treating colds, invigorating the circulatory system,and reducing swellings. Modem researches suggested the chemical components of thecrude drugs possessing antiplatelet, antioxidant, antiproliferative, anti-emetic,antihepatotoxic and anti-inflammatory activities. In order to make further chemicalresearches of the rhizomes of Alpinia officinarum, find active compounds andpromote the modernization of this traditional Chinese medicine, a systemicphytochemical investigation has been carried out.Fifty-Four compounds were isolated from the ethanol extract of the rhizomes ofAlpinia officinarum collected in Xuwen of Guangdong province using various modernchromatographic techniques. On the basis of classical chemical methods and modernspectrometric approaches, including UV, IR, CD, ¹HNMR, ¹³CNMR, ¹H-¹HCOSY,HMQC, HMBC, NOESY, and EI-MS, etc., the structures of fifty-three compoundsamong them were established. Of the fifty-three compounds identified, tencompounds were found to be new ones, two to be new natural products, eleven to beisolated from this genus for the first time and seven isolated from this plant for the first time.The new compounds were identified as (5S)-5-hydroxy-1-phenyl-7-(3, 4-dihydroxyphenyl)-3-heptanone(GLJ-15), (5R)-5-hydroxy-1-phenyl-7-(4,5-dihydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-3-heptanone(GLJ-17), 5-acetoxy-1-phenyl-7-(4-dihydroxy-phenyl)-3-heptanone(GLJ-18), 1-(4,5-dihydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-7-phenyl-3,5-heptanoidiol(GLJ-29), 3,5-diacetoxy-1-(4,5-dihydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-7-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)heptane(GLJ-34), 5-hydroxy-1-(3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenyl)-7-phenyl-4E,6E-dien-3-heptanone(GLJ-39), officinaruminane A(GLJ-40),officinaruminane B(GLJ-41), officinaruminane C(GLJ-42), alpinoside A(GLJ-43).The new natural products were identified as (3R,5R)-1,7-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)-3,5-heptanoidiol (GLJ-30), (3R,5R)-1-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-7-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-3,5-heptanoidiol (GLJ-32).A quantitative analysis of the chemical constituents of Alpinia officinarum hasbeen undertaken in order to control the quality of the Chinese medicine. Fivecompounds isolated from Alpinia officinarum were separated and quantitatedutilizing a RP-HPLC-UV method. The finger print of this medicine has been tried toestablish using the RP-HPLC-UV method and those of thirteen different materialswere compared. Furthermore a primary qualitative analysis of the flavonoids anddiarylheptanoids of Alpinia officinarum has been undertaken using UPLC-MS.The cytotoxic activities and antioxidant activities of parts of the diarylheptanoidswere also carried out. The results showed most of the tested compounds exhibitingconcentration-dependent activities with the IC₅₀ values.In addition, advances in the research of chemical constituents andpharmacological activities of Alpinia genus were reviewed in this paper. 2. Studies on the Lipophilic Chemical Constituents ofEuphorbia soongarica Boiss.Euphorbia soongarica belongs to the Euphorbiaceae family, Euphorbia genus.The roots of the plant are widely used as the substitute of Euphorbia pekinensis inXinjiang province of China for the treatment of oedema and retention of urine.Plants of the genus Euphorbia have been the subject of many investigations fortheir biologically active components possessing skin irritant, tumor promotion, orantitumor properties. However, little has been documented on the chemicalconstituents or biological activity of Euphorbia soongarica to date. In order to makefull use of our herbal materials and find out some anticancer lead compounds that aremore effective and lower poisonous, we have undertaken a investigation on thechemical constituents of the roots of Euphorbia soongarica.Modern chromatographic techniques have been used for the separation of thelipophilic part of the ethanol extract of the roots of Euphorbia soongarica which werecollected in Aertai district, Xinjiang province of China. Thirteen compounds wereisolated and on the basis of various modern spectroscopic analysis, including UV, IR,¹HNMR, ¹³CNMR, EI-MS, and ESI-MS, etc., the structures of eleven compoundswere identified. Eight compounds were isolated from this plant for the first time.The cytotoxic activities of parts of the compounds against HepG2, MCF-7 andSF-268 cells were also carried out.