Chemical constituents and cytotoxicity of Aspidistra letreae

Abstract

A phytochemical investigation of whole <em>Aspidistra letreae</em> plants led to the isolation of 2<em>H</em>-chromen-2-one (<strong>1</strong>), <em>α</em>-tocopherol (<strong>2</strong>), (<em>E</em>)-phytol (<strong>3</strong>), asparenydiol (<strong>4</strong>) and (25<em>S</em>)-spirost-1<em>β</em>,3<em>α</em>,5<em>β</em>-triol (<strong>5</strong>). Their structures were determined on the basis of NMR spectral evidences and in comparison with the reported data. Of these, asparenydiol (<strong>4</strong>) was isolated from the genus <em>Aspidistra</em> for the first time. This is also the first report on the separation and structural determination of (25<em>S</em>)-spirost-1<em>β</em>,3<em>α</em>,5<em>β</em>-triol (<strong>5</strong>) as a pure compound. The methanol extract exhibited a moderate cytotoxicity against the LU-1, HeLa, MDA-MB-231, Hep-G2, and MKN-7 human cancer cell lines with <em>IC</em><sub>50</sub> values ranging from 52.58 ± 3.65 to 64.78 ± 4.89 μg/mL.