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Chemical constituents with NO production inhibitory and cytotoxic activities from Litsea cubeba

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Abstract

A bioassay-guided fractionation of the roots and stems of Litsea cubeba led to the isolation of 14 constituents, including three new compounds, cubebanone (1), N-cis-3,4-methylenedioxycinnamoyl-3-methoxytyramine (2), and 9,9′-O-di-(E)-feruloyl-(+)-secoisolariciresinol (3), together with 11 known ones (4–14). Compounds 1, 4, and 8–11 showed obvious in vitro anti-inflammatory activities against NO production in LPS-induced murine microglial (BV-2) cell line and RAW 264.7 macrophages. A cytotoxic evaluation showed that 2, 3, and 5–8 exhibited considerable inhibition against the growth of hepatocyte carcinoma (HepG2) cell line. These findings are evidence, to some extent, for the traditional medicinal application of L. cubeba, especially as folk medicine in the treatment of inflammation-related diseases.

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Acknowledgments

This paper was financially support by the China Pharmacopeia Commission. The authors thank Dr. Yuan Zhang (School of Chinese Materia Medica, BUCM) for her authentication of the material medicine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, 100029, People’s Republic of China

    Qiang Guo, Xiaoli Gao, Zhixiang Zhu, Shuiying Zhang, Xingyun Chai & Pengfei Tu

  2. School of Chinese Materia Medica, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, 100102, People’s Republic of China

    Qiang Guo & Shuiying Zhang

  3. State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, 100191, People’s Republic of China

    Kewu Zeng

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  1. Qiang Guo
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  3. Xiaoli Gao
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Correspondence to Xingyun Chai or Pengfei Tu.

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Guo, Q., Zeng, K., Gao, X. et al. Chemical constituents with NO production inhibitory and cytotoxic activities from Litsea cubeba . J Nat Med 69, 94–99 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11418-014-0872-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11418-014-0872-6

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