Studies On The Chemical Constituents Of Prinsepia Utilis Royle And Anti-tumor Activity

Prinsepia utilis Royle, belonged to Prinsepia genus, Rosaceae, wasselected for phytochemistry and pharmacological investigations.Prinsepia genus has5species, mainly distributed in the Himalayan,Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and northern India region, there exist4species inChina.Stems and seeds of P. utilis Royle were isolated and purified in acombination of chromatographic methods （silica gel columnchromatography, Sephadex LH-20column chromatography, preparative-HPLC, et al.）. the isolated compounds were identified by spectroscopicdata analysis (ESI-MS,¹H-NMR,¹³C-NMR, DEPT, et al.).46compounds were isolated and identified from the stems and leaves,including13triterpenes and steroids,7apocarotenoids and hemiterpenes,6phenylpropanoids and lignans,4flavonoids,8aromatic compounds and8other compounds. Among them， QCJ-31, QCJ-32were newpentacyclic triterpenoids, other32compounds were isolated from thisgenus for the first time. Besides,16compounds were isolated andidentified from the seeds, including6γ-hydroxynitrile glucosides,2 flavonoids,2steroids,2aromatic compounds and4other compounds.Among them, QCG-8QCG-12were5new γ-hydroxynitrile glucosides,all of which were hydroxynitrile glucosides possessing groups of glucosederivatives that have been discovered from the natural plants for the firsttime.On the basis of theoretical and experiment reports, the biosyntheticpathways of γ-hydroxynitrile glucosides in the seeds of P. utilis Roylewas hypothesized in this study. Meantime, we revealed the presence ofmetabolic pathways of γ-hydroxynitrile glucosides in the visual angle ofmetabolic products isolated and indentified from seeds.Twenty-three compounds were tested for cytotoxicity against fourtumor cell lines using MTT assay. Among them, all the triterpenes（QCJ-23, QCJ-27, QCJ-28, QCJ-30, QCJ-31, QCJ-33, QCJ-37,QCJ-38, QCJ-39） showed significant cytotoxicity against theCCRF-CEM tumor cell line(IC₅₀:2.617.8μM). Compounds QCJ-33and QCJ-37showed significant cytotoxicity against the A549，HCT116， MDA-MB-231and CCRF-CEM tumor cell lines (IC₅₀:9.7,10.2,15.3,3.7; IC50:7.1,2.8,12.4,4.3μM). According to theirstructural features, the structure-activity relationships were concluded,and these could provide valuable data for future synthetic andpharmacological studies with the aim of obtaining cytotoxic compoundsthat are more potent and selective toward cancer cells.