Chemical constituents of Euphorbia tangutica

Abstract

Sixteen known compounds isolated from the whole plants of Euphorbia tangutica, including phorbol-13-actate (1) previously synthesised and obtained from a natural source for the first time, were evaluated in vitro against a panel of human cancer cell lines using the MTT method. Among them, ergosterol (6) exhibited significant cytotoxic activity against HL-60 cell line with an IC₅₀ value of 3.3 µM, and 3β,5α-dihydroxy-15β-cinnamoyloxy-14-oxolathyra-6 Z,12 E-diene (7) also displayed moderate activity.

Keywords:

• Euphorbiaceae
• Euphorbia tangutica
• phorbol-13-actate
• ergosterol
• cytotoxic activity

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for financial support by the project of the Fund of State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resources in West China (P2008-KF05), the project of West Doctoral Foundation and Knowledge Innovation Project funded by leading-edge projects field of northwest institute of plateau biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.