Amides from the stems of Uvaria kweichowensis

Uvaria kweichowensis is a folk nongovernmental herb used to treat cure inflammation and tumour in the Southwest area of China, During the course of our investigation for antitumour agents from the stems of Uvaria kweichowensis, six amides were obtained by means of solvent extraction, chromatography on silica gel and Sephadex LH-20 repeatedly. And their structures were identified as uvariadiamide (1), cepharanone (2), aristololactam A II (3), enterocarpam II (4), aristololactam A Ia (5), and 4,5-dioxodehydroasimilobine (6) on the basis of chemical methods and spectral analyses (EI-MS, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR). Among them, compound 1 is a new compound; the other compounds were obtained from this plant for the first time.