Letter Natural Product Chemistry	Planta Med 2007; 73: 376-380 DOI: 10.1055/s-2007-967132
© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York
Cytotoxic Triterpene and Sesquiterpene Lactones from Elephantopus mollis and Induction of Apoptosis in Neuroblastoma Cells
Turibio Kuiate Tabopda1[*], Jiawei Liu1[*], Bonaventure Tchaleu Ngadjui2, Bang Luu1
1 Laboratoire de Chimie Organique des Substances Naturelles, LC3-UMR 7177 CNRS - Université Louis Pasteur, Centre de Neurochimie, Strasbourg, France 2 Département de Chimie Organique, Université de Yaoundé 1, Yaoundé, Cameroun

Abstract

Activity-guided fractionation of root and leaf extracts from Elephantopus mollis led to the isolation of a new triterpene (1) and a new sesquiterpene lactone (2) together with five known sesquiterpene lactones (3 - 7). The structures of compounds 1 and 2 were determined based on their spectroscopic data. The cytotoxic activity of the isolated compounds was evaluated against neuroblastoma B104 cells. The sesquiterpene lactone-type compounds 2 - 7 were highly cytotoxic. Among these, compound (5) was the most cytotoxic and induced apoptosis of neuroblastoma B104 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. No significant difference was observed for cytotoxicity of compound 5 towards all 3 cell lines tested.