New 2-(2-phenylethyl)chromone derivatives from agarwood and their inhibitory effects on tumor cells

Abstract

Two new chromone derivatives, 7-hydroxy-2-[2-(3'-methoxy-4'-hydroxyphenyl)-ethyl]chromone (1), and 6,7-dimethoxy-2-[2-(3'-hydroxyphenyl)-ethyl]chromone (2) were isolated from the EtOH extract of agarwood of Aquilaria sinensis, together with eleven known analogues. Their structures were established by detailed HR-ESIMS, 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopic analysis, as well as comparison with the literature data. Selected the isolates (1, 2, 4–8, 10, 11) were tested for their antitumor activities against SMMC-7721, MGC-803 and OV-90 cell lines using the MTT method with cisplatin and paclitaxel as the positive control. All the tested compounds showed weak cytotoxic activities with IC₅₀ values ranged from 18.82 to 37.95 µg/ml.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Keywords:

• Aquilaria sinensis
• agarwood
• 2-(2-phenylethyl)chromone derivatives
• Whole-tree Agarwood-inducing Technique

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Hainan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (2017CXTD022), National Natural Science Foundation of China (81403055) and CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (2016-I2M-2-003).

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.