Two new vinblastine-type N-oxide alkaloids from Catharanthus roseus

Abstract

Two new vinblastine-type N-oxide alkaloids, 17-desacetoxyvinblastine -oxide (1) and 20′-deoxyvinblastine -oxide (2), were isolated from the leaves of Catharanthus roseus. The structures of 1 and 2 were established by the analysis of their nuclear magnetic resonance and HR-ESI-MS spectroscopic data. All alkaloids were evaluated for their cytotoxic activities against the human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cell line, human colorectal carcinoma (Lovo) cell line and human breast carcinoma (MCF-7) cell line by the MTT method in vitro, respectively. The results showed that cytotoxic activities of alkaloids 1 and 2 exhibited moderate inhibitory activity on the proliferation of three cancer cells.

Keywords::

• Catharanthus roseus
• vinblastine-type N-oxide alkaloids
• cytotoxicity

Acknowledgements

The research was supported by the following funds including The National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos 81102343, 30901998 and 81274115), Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-11-0606), Program of Science & Technology New Star of Beijing City (No. 2009A35), International Cooperation Project of Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2011DFA31860), The Key Project for Drug Innovation of Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2012ZX09103201), The National Natural Science Funds for Distinguished Young Scholar (No. 30625039), Program for Changjiang Scholars to Dr Wen-Cai Ye, and The Team Project of Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. 8351063201000003).

Notes

^1. These authors contributed equally to this work.