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A new iridoid, pedunculariside, together with the known iridoid agnuside were isolated from the butanol extract of Vitex peduncularis stem bark. Both pedunculariside and agnuside showed preferential inhibition of COX-2, with IC50 values of 0.15 +/- 0.21 mg/ml and 0.026 +/- 0.015 mg/ml respectively, while having only small inhibitory effects on COX-1. Both compounds did not exhibit cytotoxicity against vero cells.

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Two new ecdysteroids, 24-epi-pinnatasterone (1) and scabrasterone (2), together with 11 known ecdysteroids, calonysterone, pterosterone, 24-epi-makisterone A, 20-hydroxyecdysone (3), polypodine B, ajugasterone C, pinnatasterone (4), 11alpha-hydroxyecdysone, 24-epi-abutasterone, 20,26-dihydroxyecdysone, and turkesterone (5), were isolated from the stem bark of Vitex scabra. This plant species contained a very high concentration (1.8%) of 3 and thus provided a good source of this parent ecdysteroid and related rare ecdysteroids. Compounds 1 and 2 exhibited very low moulting activity in the Musca bioassay. The low biological activity of these two ecdysteroids was in agreement with those of other 22-deoxyecdysteroids.

Eleven phytoecdysteroids have been isolated and identified from the low polarity fractions of Serratula coronata juice by a combination of column chromatography and HLPC. Four of them are new, i.e. ecdysone 22-acetate 7, (25S)-inokosterone 26-acetate 9, 20,22-O-(R-ethylidene)-20-hydroxyecdysone 10 and 20,22-O-(R-ethylidene)-ajugasterone C 11. The biological activity of these new ecdysteroids in the Drosophila melanogaster B II cell bioassay is reported.

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