CHEMICAL COMPONENTS OF THE TUBER OF Alocasia cucullata

摘要

Alocasia cucullata Schott is mainly distributed in Guangxi, Guangdong, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Fujian Provinces in China (Wu, 1990). Its tuber (Chinese name "jianweiyu") is a well-known ethnic medicine of the Zhuang nationality in China and is used to treat cancer, reduce swelling, for detoxification, and to ease pain. The antitumor effects of this herb have been preliminarily confirmed because of its widespread clinical application in China for centuries. Nevertheless, up to now, no systematic study has been done on the antitumor constituents of A. cucullata, and the occurrence of an N-acetyl-D-lactosamine (LacNAc)-specific lectin has been reported in a previous investigation of A. cucullata [1]. Our previous pharmacological study further showed the presence of cytotoxic activity in a 50% ethanol extract [2]. In this article we report the isolation of a total of 12 substances: steroid (1), alkaloids (2-4), and phenolic substances (5-12) for the first time from the genus Alocasia.