Cytotoxicity of Secondary Metabolites from Dracaena viridiflora Engl & Krause and their Semisynthetic Analogues

The MeOH extract of Dracaena viridiflora was found to display significant cytotoxicity against some cancer cell lines. Systematic phytochemical investigation of this extract led to the isolation and structure elucidation of ten secondary metabolites including five spirostane (1-5) and one furostane (6) steroidal saponins. Furthermore, some acetylated spirostane analogues and three previously unreported derivatives with the 22,26-epoxycholesta-5,22-diene skeleton (15-17) were prepared from trillin (1), prosapogenin A of dioscin (2) and dioscin (4) by reaction with ZnCl 2/Ac 2O. Among the isolated and semisynthetic compounds, dioscin showed the most potent cytotoxicity against A549, Jurkat an…