Abstract:
Eight compounds were isolated from the stems of
Brucea mollis by various chromatographic techniques such as column chromatography on silica gel and Sephadex LH-20, and preparative HPLC, and their structures were elucidated as bruceolline O (
1), 1-(1-
β-glucopyranosyl)-1
H-indole-3-carbaldehyde (
2), canthin-6-one (
3), 11-hydroxycanthin-6-one (
4), 9-methoxycanthin-6-one (
5), 4-methoxycanthin-6-one (
6), infractin (
7), and
β-carboline-1-propionic acid (
8). The cytotoxic activities of compounds
1-
8 against HCT-8 and A549 human cell lines were determined, but none of them exhibited significant activity (IC
50 > 10 μmol×L
-1). Among them, compound
1 is a new indole alkaloid, and compounds
2 and
5-
7 were isolated from this plant for the first time.