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A total of 20 new indole alkaloids comprising mainly oxidized derivatives of macroline- (including alstofonidine, a macroline indole incorporating a butyrolactone ring-F), pleiocarpamine-, and sarpagine-type alkaloids were isolated from the bark and leaf extracts of Alstonia angustifolia. The structures and relative configurations of these alkaloids were determined using NMR and MS analyses and in some instances confirmed by X-ray diffraction analyses. Alkaloids 3, 7, 35, and 41 showed moderate to weak activity, while 21 showed strong activity in reversing multidrug resistance in vincristine-resistant KB cells.

Eleven new indole alkaloids (1-11) comprising seven aspidofractinine and four eburnane alkaloids, were isolated from the stem-bark extract of Kopsia pauciflora occurring in Malaysian Borneo. The aspidofractinine alkaloids include a ring-contracted, an additional ring-fused, a paucidactine regioisomer, two paucidactine, and one kopsine alkaloid. The structures of several of these alkaloids were also confirmed by X-ray diffraction analyses. The bisindole alkaloids isolated, norpleiomutine and kopsoffinol, showed in vitro growth inhibitory activity against human PC-3, HCT-116, MCF-7, and A549 cells and moderate effects in reversing multidrug-resistance in vincristine-resistant human KB cells.

A methanol extract of the stem bark of the Malayan Alstonia penangiana provided seven new bisindole alkaloids, comprising six macroline–sarpagine alkaloids (angustilongines E–K, 1–6) and one macroline–pleiocarpamine bisindole alkaloid (angustilongine L, 7). Analysis of the spectroscopic data (NMR and MS) of these compounds led to the proposed structures of these alkaloids. The macroline–sarpagine alkaloids (1–6) showed in vitro growth inhibitory activity against a panel of human cancer cell lines, inclusive of KB, vincristine-resistant KB, PC-3, LNCaP, MCF7, MDA-MB-231, HT-29, HCT 116, and A549 cells (IC50 values: 0.02–9.0 μM).