Four new compounds with cytotoxic and neuroprotective activity from Notopterygium incisum

Phytochemical research on an extract of Notopterygium incisum yielded twenty-four compounds (1–24), including four new compounds 7, 10, 13 and 17. The structures of new compounds were elucidated by spectroscopic analysis, and the absolute configuration of 5 were assigned via Mosher's method. In addition, compounds 2, 9, 19 and 24 were analyzed by single crystal X-ray analysis for the first time. The new compound 7 exhibited remarkable cytotoxic activity against the human pancreatic cancer cell lines PANC-1, CAPAN-2, CFPAC-1, and SW1990 with IC50 values of 6.25 ± 0.54, 7.74 ± 1.12, 6.68 ± 1.11, and 5.35 ± 0.33 μM, respectively. The primary mechanistic study indicated that 7 caused cell death probably due to induced defects in the mitotic process. Moreover, compounds 2 and 7-9 effectively protected against H2O2-induced neurotoxicity in the SH-SY5Y cells, and 1, 3, 6, 10, 11, 16 and 19 exhibited strong DPPH scavenging ability.