It has already been reported that the hinokitiol 1) -related compounds hinokitiol (b-thujaplicin), b-dolabrin and g-thujaplicin are among the constituents of Thujopsis dolabrata SIEB. et ZUCC. var. hondai MAKINO (Chart 1).2) Among them, hinokitiol, the major component of this plant has been found to show a broad spectrum of biological activities, including antimicrobial activity, [3][4][5] insecticidal effect, 6) phytogrowthinhibitory activity, 7) cytotoxic effect on mammalian tumor cells 8) and inhibitory activity on catechol-O-methyltransferase, 9) and metalloproteases such as carboxypeptidase A, 10) collagenase 10) and thermolysin. 10) At the same time, we have reported that b-dolabrin and g-thujaplicin, like hinokitiol, 7) showed a phytogrowth-inhibitory effect, 11) and inhibitory activities on metalloproteases.10) We recently reported that hinokitiol, b-dolabrin and g-thujaplicin had antifungal activities against wood-rotting fungi and insecticidal effects on Tyrophagus putrescentiae and Coptotermes formosanus.
12)Strong cytotoxic effects on two kinds of tumor cell lines were also found in b-dolabrin and g-thujaplicin 13) as well as hinokitiol.8) On the other hand, because a-thujaplicin is a minor component (0.2%) of the wood of T. dolabrata SIEB. et ZUCC. var. hondai MAKINO, no work has yet been done on its above-mentioned biological activities.In this work, to expand our knowledge of the biological activity of hinokitiol-related compounds, the synthesis of athujaplicin (Chart 1) and its antibacterial activity, phytogrowth-inhibitory effect and inhibitory activity on metalloproteases were investigated in comparison with those of other hinokitiol-related compounds. As basic research on the cytotoxic effect of hinokitiol-related compounds, this effect of a-thujaplicin on two kinds of tumor cell lines of human stomach cancer, KATO-III and Ehrlich's ascites carcinoma, was also examined.
MATERIALS AND METHODSSynthesis of a-thujaplicin was performed according to the following method. Measurement: The 1 H-NMR spectra were measured with a JEOL GSX-270 spectrometer using tetramethylsilane as an internal standard. HR-MS spectrum was measured with JEOL JMS-HX-100.Synthesis of 7,7-Dichloro-4-isopropylidene-bicyclo[3.2.0]-hept-2-en-6-ones To a stirred solution of freshly distilled 6,6-dimethylfilvene (70.0 g, 74.9%, 0.49 mol) 14) and dichloroacetylchloride (106.6 g, 0.72 mol) in n-hexane (500 ml) was added dropwise Et 3 N (72.8 g, 0.72 mol) over a period of ICR Building 2F,