Planta Med 2015; 81 - PM_161
DOI: 10.1055/s-0035-1565538

Sesquiterpenoids from Taiwanese Vernonia cinerea

LM Kuo Yang 3, PY Tseng 2, CC Liaw 4, LJ Zhang 1, KC Tsai 1, ZH Lin 1, HO Ho 3, YH Kuo 1
  • 1Division of Materia Medica Development, National Research Institute of Chinese Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 2Department of Life Sciences and Institute of Genome Sciences, National Yang Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 3School of Pharmacy, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 4StarSci Biotech CO., LTD, Taipei, Taiwan

A phytochemical investigation of the ethanol extracts of Taiwanese Vernonia cinerea L. resulted in the isolation of ten hirsutinolide-type sesquiterpenoids, including seven new ones, named vercinolides A˜G (1˜7). All structures were elucidated by a combination of detailed spectroscopic analyses (NMR and MS) and comparison with reported data. Furthermore, in in vitro anti-inflammatory assays, compounds 4, 5, and 8˜10 exhibited strong inhibitory activities of NO production by LPS-induced RAW264.7 macrophages, IC50 values of 1.16, 0.91, 0.75, 0.55, and 0.28 µM, without affecting cellular viability at 40 µM. Structure-activity relationship studies implied that the functional groups at C-1, C-8, and C-13 may enhance inhibition of NO production, especially the ether group at C-8.