Selaginella tamariscina Spring(Selaginellaceae) is a perennial plant and is distributed in Korea, China, and Japan. In traditional medicine, the whole plants are used as an antiinflammatory, antihemorrhage, anticancer, and astringent. Previous phytoch...
Selaginella tamariscina Spring(Selaginellaceae) is a perennial plant and is distributed in Korea, China, and Japan. In traditional medicine, the whole plants are used as an antiinflammatory, antihemorrhage, anticancer, and astringent. Previous phytochemical studies on this species afforded biflavonoids, triterpenoids, and flavonoids. In an ongoing investigation into antitumor active compounds from natural products, the methylene chloride soluble fraction of methanol extract from Selaginella tamariscina Spring.(Selaginellaceae) showed significant antitumor activity on the human cancer cell lines. By means of the activity-oriented purification procedure, 4α, 5α-4,14-dimethylcholest-8-en-3-one(1) ergosta-4,6,8(14),22-tetraene-3-one(2), ergosterol endoperoxide(3) cholest-5-ene-3,7-diol(7β-hydroxycholesterol)(4), stigmasta-5-ene-3β-7β-diol(7β-hydroxysitosterol)(5), stigmasta-5-ene-3β-7α-diol(7α-hydroxysitosterol) (6) were isolated. Their structures were determined by chemical analysis, as well as, 1D- with 2D-NMR spectroscopy. All compounds were isolated from this plant for the first time. Cytotoxic activity of isolated compounds was evaluated by SRB method against five human cancer cell lines. Most of the isolated compounds showed potent antitumor activity except for compound 1. It is of interest to compare the antitumor activity of compound 5 with that of compound 6. Compounds 2-6 could be mainly responsible for the potent antitumor effect of an methylene chloride soluble fraction of S. tamariscina, and might be suitable for further development as a leading antitumor agent.