Studies on chemical constituents and bioactivities of leaves of Torreya grandis / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the chemical constituents and bioactivities of leaves of Torreya grandis. Methods The chemical constituents were isolated by MCI-Gel CHP-20, Diaion HP-20, Toyopearl HW-40, Sephadex LH-20, RP-18 and silica gel column chromatographic methods. Their structures were identified on the basis of physicochemical and spectroscopic analysis. The cytotoxic activity and antitumor activity of compounds 1-4 were investigated by lethal-to-prawn larva bioactivity determining method and MTT assay. Results Ten compounds were isolated from EtOAc extract and n-BuOH of leaves of T. grandis. Their structures were identified as torreyagrandate (1), hinokiol (2), 4-epiagathadial (3), 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid 3-O-β-D-glucoside (4), dehydroabietic acid (5), trans-communic acid (6), cis-communic acid (7), (2-methoxy-1,4-phenylene) dimethanol (8), pinoresinol (9), and β-sitosterol (10). The bioactivity experiment indicated that compounds 1-4 possessed certain cytotoxic activity towards brine shrimp, and LC50 value were 7.7, 8.0, 8.8, and 4.2 μg/mL, respectively. In addition, it was found that compound 4 presented remarkable inhibitory effect on two kinds of cells of human liver cancer cells of Huh7 (67%) and HepG2 (69%) at a dose of 10 μg/mL. Conclusion All compounds are isolated from leaves of T. grandis for the first time expect compound 10. Compounds 1-4 exhibite certain cytotoxic activity, and compound 4 displays stronger antitumor activity towards Huh7 and HepG2 liver cancer cells.