Abstract:
Chemical investigation of leaves of a cytotoxic plant, named Gardenia sootepensis in our laboratory led to the isolation of two novel triterpenes: sootepenolide-A and sootepenolide-B. In addition, flavonoids, i.e. 5,7-dihydroxy-6-methoxy-2-(4-methoxyphenyl) -4H-I-benzopyran-4-one, 5,7dihydroxy-2-(4-hydroxyphenyl) -6-methoxy-4H-l-benzopyran-4-one, 5-hydroxy-6,7-dimethoxy -2-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl)-4H- 1 -benzopyran-4-one, 5,7-dihydroxy-2-(3-hydroxy-4,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-6-methoxy -4H-1-benzopyran-4-one, 5-hydroxy-2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-7-methoxy -4H-1-benzopyran-4-one were also isolated. Sootepenolide-A 5,7-dihydroxy-6methoxy-2-(4-methoxyphenyl)-4H-l-benzopyran -4-one, 5-hydroxy-6,7-dimethoxy-2-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl) -4H-l-benzopyran-4-one and 5-hydroxy2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)- -7-methoxy-4H-l-benzopyran-4-one showed cytotoxic activities in several types of cell lines. The structures were assigned by spectroscopic methods, largely by interpretation of high resolution (1)H NMR spectral data. The acetate derivatives were prepared in order to confirm the structures of the isolated flavonoids