Bioactive Sesquiterpene Lactones from Centaurea Species and their Cytotoxic/Cytostatic Activity Against Human Cell Lines in vitro

Abstract

Sesquiterpene lactones isolated from the aerial parts of various species of the genus Centaurea were examined for their in vitro cytotoxic/cytostatic activity against five human cell lines (i. e., DLD1, SF268, MCF7, H460 and OVCAR3). Compounds 1 - 4 were isolated from C. zuccariniana, 5 and 6 from C. achaia, 7 from C. thessala ssp. drakiensis and compounds 8 and 9 from C. deusta. Compound 1, 8α-O-(3,4-dihydroxy-2-methylenebutanoyloxy)dehydromelitensine was found to be the most active, exhibited a considerable growth inhibiting activity against three of the cell lines tested, while compound 5 8α-O-(3-hydroxy-2-methylenepropanoyl)dehydromelitensin exhibited a growth inhibiting effect against most of the tested cell lines. A new eudesmanolide (8α-hydroxysonchucarpolide, 4) was isolated from C. zuccariniana and its structure was elucidated by spectroscopic methods.

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