Alkaloids from Argyreia seguinii and their cytotoxic activity

In order to study the alkaloids and their cytotoxic activities from Argyreia seguinii, 75% ethanol extract from A. seguinii was isolated and purified by silica gel, ODS, Sephadex LH-20 and semi-preparative HPLC, and the structures of obtained compounds were identified by physicochemical properties and spectral data. Five tumor cell cytotoxic activities of the compounds were determined by MTS method. Nine compounds were isolated and identified as trans-N-cinnamoyltyramine (1), trans-N-p-coumaroyltyramine (2), N-trans-feruloyltyramine (3), N-cis-feruloyltyramine (4), 1H-indole-3-carbaldehyde (5), aurantiamide acetate (6), 8-oxotetrahydropalmatine (7), 8-oxypalmatine (8) and 12,13-dihydro-8-oxoberberine (9). Compounds 1, 4-9 were isolated from this plant for the first time, and compounds 7 and 8 showed inhibitory activities against the cancer SMMC-7721 cells with the IC50 values of (15.50 ± 0.76), (14.24 ± 0.72) μmol·L-1, respectively. The results of this study lay a foundation for further study of the chemical constituents and pharmacological activities of A. seguinii, and provide a certain basis for clarifying the origin of Zhuang medicine “Yipichou”.