The phytochemistry and antidepressant activity of Hypericum perforatum (St. John's wort) have attracted much attention to the Hypericum genus and several biologically active components have been isolated. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Hypericum sampsonii (Guttiferae) is a herbal medicine used in the treatment of blood stasis, to relieve swelling, and as an antitumor herb in Taiwan. 9) Xanthones 10) and series of polyprenylated benzophenone derivatives [11][12][13][14][15] were previously isolated from this plant. In a continuation of our search for active components similar to H. perforatum in H. sampsonii, 15) We report here the isolation and structural determination of five new phenolic compounds together with 16 known compounds from the whole herbs of H. sampsonii.
Results and DiscussionThe ethanolic extract of the whole herbs was successively partitioned with ethyl acetate and n-butanol. The ethyl acetate and BuOH-soluble fractions were chromatographed on silica gel and Sephadex LH-20 to give two new benzophenones, 2,6-dihydroxy-4-[(E)-5-hydroxy-3,7-dimethylocta-2,7-dienyloxy]benzophenone (1) and 2,6-dihydroxy-4-[(E)-7-hydroxy-3,7-dimethylocta-2-enyloxy]benzophenone (2), a new xanthone, hyperxanthone (3), a new bisanthraquinone glycoside, R-(Ϫ) -skyrin-6-O-b-D-xylopyranoside (4), and 2-caffeoyloxy-3-hydroxy-3-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)propyl alcohol (5) Using the anti-hepatitis B virus (HBV)-producing cell line MS-G2 in vitro cultural system-guided screening was performed, and two new benzophenones, 2,6-dihydroxy-4-[(E)-5-hydroxy-3,7-dimethylocta-2,7-dienyloxy]benzophenone (1) and 2,6-dihydroxy-4-[(E)-7-hydroxy-3,7-dimethylocta-2-enyloxy]benzophenone (2), a new xanthone, hyperxanthone (3), a new bisanthraquinone glycoside, R-(؊)-skyrin-6-O-b b-D-xylopyranoside (4), and 2-caffeoyloxy-3-hydroxy-3-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)propyl alcohol (5), and 16 known compounds were isolated from the anti-HBV active fraction of the whole herbs of Hypericum sampsonii. Their structures were elucidated using spectroscopic methods, mainly 2D NMR and MS spectrometry. Circular dichroism was used to determine the stereochemistry of bisanthraquinone glycosides.