Alkaloids and sesquiterpenoids from Acorus tatarinowii

Abstract

The rhizome of Acorus tatarinowii is a well-known traditional Chinese medicine. Our extensive investigation on this plant material afforded two new compounds, including a cadinane-type sesquiterpenoid and a pyrazine derivative, along with seven known compounds. The structures of the new compounds, tatarinowin B and tatarinine A, were elucidated as 2-oxocadinan-1(10),3-dien-5-ol (1) and 2-(3′,4′-dihydroxy-1′-butylenyl)-5-(2″,3″,4″-trihydroxybutyl)-pyrazine (2), respectively, by means of spectral methods.

Keywords:

• Acorus tatarinowii
• alkaloids
• sesquiterpenoids
• tatarinowin B
• tatarinine A

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the following grants: Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KSCX2-YW-R-118 and KSCX2-YW-R-211); Talent Scholarship of Yunnan Youth (2007PY01-48); Key Project for Drug Innovation (2008ZX09401-004) from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China; and Project to Y.-X. Cheng from the State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resources in West China, Kunming Institute of Botany (P2008-ZZ11).