Ah-Reum Han, Hye-Young Min, Joo-Won Nam, Na-Youn Lee, Adam Wiryawan, Wahyu Suprapto, Sang Kook Lee, Kang Ro Lee, Eun-Kyoung Seo
A new naphthoquinone, (-)-3-[2-(acetyloxy)propyl]-2-hydroxy-8-methoxy-1,4- naphthoquinone (1) was isolated from the bulb of Eleutherine americana Merr. et Heyne (Iridaceae) together with two known compounds, eleutherinol (6) and 1,5-dihydroxy-3-methylanthraquinone (7) which were found in this species for the first time. The other known compounds, (-)-isoeleutherin (2), (+)-eleutherin (3), (-)-hongconin (4), and (+)-dihydroeleutherinol (5) which were reported previously from this species, were also isolated in the present study. Compounds 2-6 exhibited potent inhibitory activity on nitric oxide production in RAW 264.7 lipopolysaccharide-activated mouse macrophage cells with IC50 values of 7.7, 11.4, 19.8, 21.7, and 34.4 μm, respectively, whereas the other two compounds, 1 and 7, were inactive. The structure of compound 1 was elucidated by spectroscopic data analysis including 1D and 2D NMR experiments. © 2008 Pharmaceutical Society of Japan.
College of Pharmacy, Center for Cell Signaling and Drug Discovery Research, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 120-750, South Korea; Faculty of Sciences, Brawijaya University, Malang 65145, Indonesia; Batu Herba Medica Centre, East Java, Indonesia; College of Pharmacy, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 440-746, South Korea
