ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To study the polar chemical constituents from Prunella vulgaris L. METHODS: Silica gel, reverse-phase octadecylsilyl(ODS), Sephadex LH-20 chromatographic methods, MCI and HPLC were applied to isolate and purify compounds. MS and NMR methods were used to determine the structures of the compounds. Furthermore, the cytotoxicity of these chemical components for MCF-7, MDA-MB-231 and MCF-10A cell lines was measured by MTT method. RESULTS: A total of 12 compounds were isolated from the fruits of P. vulgaris and their structures were identified as methyl 3,4,α-trihydroxypropionate(1), danshensu(2), methyl rosmarinate(3),3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid(4), quercetin-3-O-glycopyranoside(5), hyperoside(6), 2α,3α,19α,24-tetrahydroxylurs-12-en-28-oic acid(7), 2α, 3α, 24-trihydroxyolean-12-en-28-oic acid(8), cytidine(9), daucosterol(10), (3S,5R,10S)-7-oxo-12-methoxyabieta-8,11,13-triene-3,11,14-triol(11), and 2α,3α,24-trihydroxyolean-12,20(30)-dien-28-oic acid(12). The results of antitumor assay indicated that compound 2,3,5 and 6 significantly inhibited the activity of MCF-7, compound 3 could inhibit the activity of MDA-MB-231, but all of them also significantly inhibited the activity of normal cell lines MCF-10A. CONCLUSION: Compounds 9 and 11 are isolated from the genus of Prunella L. for the first time. Some chemical constituents form Prunella L. show certain anti-breast cancer activity.