Planta Med 2012; 78 - PI174
DOI: 10.1055/s-0032-1320862

Pyrrole alkaloids from the fruits of Lycium chinense and their hepatoprotective activity

UJ Youn 1, YS Kil 1, U Kang 1, YJ Lee 1, HJ Shin 1, JW Nam 1, AR Han 1, SH Sung 2, J Kim 2, SM Lee 3, D Lee 4, JH Lee 5, EK Seo 1
  • 1College of Pharmacy, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 120–750, Korea
  • 2College of Pharmacy, Seoul National University, Seoul 151–742, Korea
  • 3School of Pharmacy, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 440–746, Korea
  • 4School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Korea University, Seoul 136–713, Korea
  • 5Department of Korean Medicine, Dongguk University, Geongju 780–714, Korea

Four new pyrrole alkaloids, methyl 2-(2-formyl-5-methoxymethylpyrrol-1-yl)propanoate (1), methyl 2-(2-formyl-5-methoxymethylpyrrol-1-yl)-3-(p-hydroxyphenyl)propanoate (2), dimethyl 2-(2-formyl-5-methoxymethylpyrrol-1-yl)succinate (3), and dimethyl 2-(2-formyl-5-methoxymethylpyrrol-1-yl)pentanedioate (4), were isolated from EtOAc extracts of the fruits of Lycium chinense Miller (Solanaceae). The structures of 1-4 were elucidated by analyses of various spectral data including the 1H, 13C, HSQC, and HMBC NMR spectra. Compounds 1-4 exhibited hepatoprotective activity in vitro with 86.6±7.9, 86.7±3.0, 93.1±8.3, and 97.7±3.9 cell viabilities at 1µM, respectively, in cultured HepG2 liver cell injury induced by CCl4.