Chromones and indolinone alkaloids from Actaea asiatica Hara

Abstract

1. Subject and sourceActaea asiatica Hara (Ranunculaceae), one of the eight species of genera Actaea, occurs mainly in the north tem-perate zones, e.g. China, North America, Korea, Russia and Siberia (Wang, 1979). The rhizomes of this plant werecollected in Luoping village, Suijiang county, Shaotong area, Yunnan province in July 2004. A voucher specimen(AA-04-0717) has been deposited in the Herbarium of Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academyof Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College. In a recent phylogenetic study of the genera Cimicifuga andActaea, Cimicifuga was transferred to Actaea based on the sequence of nuclear ribosomal DNA ITS region (Comptonet al., 1998).2. Previous workThe circumscriptionsof thegeneraActaea and Cimicifugahas long been debated. In the recent phylogenystudyofCimicifuga and Actaea, Cimicifuga has been transferred to Actaea based on the sequence of nuclear ribosomal DNAITS region (Compton et al., 1998).OurpreviousphytochemicalinvestigationonA.asiaticaresultedintheisolationof9,19-cycloartanetriterpenesap-onions and cinnamic acid derivatives, which are the major constituents of Cimicifuga plants (Gao et al, 2006a,b). Inour continuous study on the chemical constituents of A. asiatica, four furan chromones and two indolinone alkaloidswere obtained.