ABSTRACT
Eight known secondary metabolites were isolated from the methanolic extract of the whole plant of Astragalus lycius Boiss. They were identified as 5,5'-dihydoxy-3'-methoxy-isoflavone-7-0-ß-D-glucoside (1), genistin (2), sissotrin (3), 5,4'-dimethoxy-isoflavone-7-0-ß-D-glucopyranoside (4), (7S,8R)-5-methoxydehydrodiconiferyl alcohol-4-0-ß-D-glucopyranoside (5), 4-0-lariciresinol-glucoside (6), 2-phenylethyl-ß-D-glucopyranoside (7) and ß-sitosterol-3-O-ß-D-glucopyranoside (8) by spectroscopic methods including (1)H- and (13)C-NMR and HR-MS experiments, and by comparison with literature values. Compounds 1-7 are reported for the first time from Astragalus taxa. All of the compounds were tested for their cytotoxic activities against a number of cancer cell lines. Among them, only 6 exhibited significant activity against human colon carcinoma (HT-29) at 2.69 µM concentration.
