Chemical Constituents and Anti-inflammatory Principles from the Fruits of Forsythia suspense

Fifty compounds were isolated from the fruits of Forsythia suspensa, including 13 new compounds characterized as eight new diterpenoids (1-8), three new lignans (9-11), a new iridoid (12), and a new triterpenoid (13). Their structures were established on the basis of spectroscopic and spectrometric analysis. Most of the isolated compounds were examined for their anti-inflammatory activity in vitro. The results showed that several compounds displayed significant inhibition of fMLP/CB-induced superoxide anion generation and elastase release, with IC₅₀ values ranging from 0.6 ± 0.1 to 8.6 ± 0.8 µg/mL and from 0.8 ± 0.3 to 7.3 ± 1.1 µg/mL, respectively.

Fig. 1: Structures of compounds 1 – 13.