Mesua beccariana (Clusiaceae) A Source of Potential Anti-cancer Lead Compounds in Drug Discovery

摘要

An investigation on biologically active secondary metabolites from the stem bark of Mesua beccariana was carried out. A new cyclodione, mesuadione (>1), along with several known constituents which are beccamarin (>2), 2,5-dihydroxy-1,3,4-trimethoxy anthraquinone (>3), 4-methoxy-1,3,5-trihydroxyanthraquinone (>4), betulinic acid (>5) and stigmasterol (>6) were obtained from this ongoing research. Structures of these compounds were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic methods, including 1D and 2D-NMR, GC-MS, IR and UV techniques. Preliminary tests of the in vitro cytotoxic activities of all the isolated metabolites against a panel of human cancer cell lines Raji (lymphoma), SNU-1 (gastric carcinoma), K562 (erythroleukemia cells), LS-174T (colorectal adenocarcinoma), HeLa (cervical cells), SK-MEL-28 (malignant melanoma cells), NCI-H23 (lung adenocarcinoma), IMR-32 (neuroblastoma) and Hep-G2 (hepatocellular liver carcinoma) were carried out using an MTT assay. Mesuadione (>1), beccamarin (>2), betulinic acid (>5) and stigmasterol (>6) displayed strong inhibition of Raji cell proliferation, while the proliferation rate of SK-MEL-28 and HeLa were strongly inhibited by stigmasterol (>6) and beccamarin (>2), indicating these secondary metabolites could be anti-cancer lead compounds in drug discovery.