ABSTRACT
Objective: For the purpose of finding new bioactive agents from ethnic medicines, the chemical study on Dai Medicine Cassia alata was carried out. Methods: The chemical constituents from the twigs of C. alata were isolated by column chromatographic methods of silica gel, MCI-Gel resin, Sephadex LH-20, and HPLC. The structures were elucidated by spectroscopic methods, including extensive 1D and 2D NMR techniques. The cytotoxicity of this compound for NB-4, A-549, SHSY5Y, PC-3, and MCF-7 cells line was also evaluated by using the MTT method. Results: Four 2-arylbenzofuran compounds were isolated from this plant and identified as 7- methoxy-2-(4-methoxyphenyl)-3,5-dimethylbenzofuran (1), moracin N (2), 2-(2'-methoxy-4'-hydroxy-aryl)-3-methy-6-hydroxybenzofuran (3), and moracin P (4). Conclusion: Compound 1 is a new compound named as 7-methoxy-2-(4-methoxyphenyl)-3,5-dimethylbenzofuran. Compound 1 also displays the high cytotoxicity to tested cancer cell-line.