Anti-inflammatory chemical constituents from aerial part of Lawsonia inermis Linn

Lawsonia inermis Linn. (Lythraceae) is a small shrub or tree, distributed throughout Lanyu Island of Taiwan, North Africa and Australia. Isocoumarin and their derivatives are widely distributed in plants of the family Lythraceae. Many of the isolates exhibit diverse biological activities, such as anti-inflammatory and cytoxicities. Its leaves are used as an external hemorrhage and as abscess at fingernail [1, 2]. Investigation of the EtOAc-soluble fractions form methanol extract of the aerial part of L. inermis has led to the isolation of five new compounds, together with two known ones. Among of five new isolates two are novel skeleton bicyclo[1, 1, 0]butane type lignans, inerlignols A (1), B (2), two isocoumarin carbonates, inermiscarbonates A (3), B (4) and a diarylpentanoid, inermol (5). Compounds 1, 2, 5 as well as two known compounds, luteolin (6) and quercetin (7), exhibited anti-inflammatory activity decrease of the LPS-stimulated product of nitrite in RAW 264.7 cells with IC50 values of 9.69, 12.52, 6.77, 6.17 and 7.61 µg/ml, respectively. The structures of five new compounds were determined through spectral analyses including extensive 2D-NMR data. In this symposium we describe the structural elucidation and anti-inflammatory activity.

Keywords: Anti-inflammatory, Lawsonia inermis Linn., lignan, carbonates

References:

[1] Ying SS. Coloured illustrated Flora of Taiwan vol. 5. Taipei, published by author himself, 1995, pp 316.

[2] Lin YX, Chang YS, Chen IS, Ou JC. The Catalogue of Medicinal Plant Resources in Taiwan. Taipei, Committee on Chinese Medicine and Pharmacy, 2003, pp 333.