Bioactive lignan constituents from the twigs of Lindera glauca

A bioassay-guided fractionation and chemical investigation of the MeOH extract from the twigs of Lindera glauca (S_IEB. et Z_UCC.) B_LUME resulted in the isolation and identification of six lignans (1 – 6) including three new lignan derivatives, named linderuca A (1), B (2), and C (3). The structures of the new compounds (1 – 3) were determined on the basis of spectroscopic analyses, including two dimensional NMR and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy studies. The cytotoxic activities of the isolates (1 – 6) were evaluated by determining their inhibitory effects on human tumor cell lines. Compounds 1 – 5 showed antiproliferative activities against A549, SK-OV-3, SK-MEL-2, and HCT-15 cell lines with IC₅₀ values of 7.79 – 29.42µM. Based on the understanding that inflammation is a crucial cause of tumor progression, we also investigated the anti-inflammatory activities of the isolates (1 – 6) in the lipopolysaccharide-stimulated murine microglia BV-2 cell line by measuring nitric oxide (NO) levels. The new lignans (1 – 3) significantly inhibited NO production with IC₅₀ values of 12.10, 9.48, and 9.87µM, respectively, without cytotoxicity.