Chem. Pharm. Bull., 48(7), 1006-1009, July 2000

Regular Articles

The Constituents of the Root and Stem of Aristolochia cucurbitifolia Hayata and Their Biological Activity

Tian-Shung WU,^* Yu-Yi CHAN, and Yann-Lii LEU

Department of Chemistry, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, R.O.C. Received January 24, 2000; accepted March 7, 2000

Four new compounds, three phenanthrene derivatives, aristolochic acid-III methyl ester (1), cepharanone C (2), and sodium 7-hydroxyl-8-methoxyaristolate (3), and the benzoate derivative, sodium 3,4-dimethoxybenzoate (4), together with 53 known compounds were isolated and characterized from the fresh root and stem of Aris-tolochia cucurbitifolia. Their structures were elucidated by spectral analyses and chemical transformations. The cytotoxicity and antiplatelet activity of the isolated compounds are also discussed.

Key words Aristolochia cucurbitifolia; Aristolochiaceae; aristolochic acid derivatives; antiplatelet agent; cytotoxic agent