Two new aromatic derivatives from Codonopsis pilosula and their α-glucosidase inhibitory activities

Abstract

The ethanol extract of the roots of Codonopsis pilosula was subjected to chromatographic fractionation, which result in the isolation and characterization of two new aromatic derivatives 2,3-dihydroxypropyl 2,4-dihydroxy-3,6-dimethylbenzoate (1) and 2-oxopropyl 3-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzoate (2), along with three known compounds pilosulinene A (3), pollenfuran B (4) and (+)-pinoresinol (5). Their structures were demonstrated by HRESIMS and spectroscopic methods including NMR and IR. It is worth noting that compound 4 was isolated for the first time from the genus Codonopsis. The potential hypoglycemic properties of compounds 2–5 were evaluated by measuring their α-glucosidase inhibitory effects. As a result, compounds 2 and 3 showed weak α-glucosidase inhibitory activities with IC₅₀ values of 154.8 ± 11.0 μM and 24.0 ± 2.2 μM, respectively.

Keywords:

• Campanulaceae
• Codonopsis pilosula
• aromatic derivatives
• α-glucosidase inhibitory activities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2018YFC1706300 and 2018YFC1706304), the Natural Science Foundation of Gansu Province (No. 18JR4RA003), and the Science and Technology Project of Lanzhou City (2018-4-61).