Stilbenoids and Flavonoids from Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp. and Their a-Glucosidase Inhibitory Activities

Two new stilbenoids, cajanstilbenoid C (1) and cajanstilbenoid D (2), together with eight other known stilbenoids (3-10) and seventeen known flavonoids (11-27), were isolated from the petroleum ether and ethyl acetate portions of the 95% ethanol extract of leaves of Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp. The planar structures of the new compounds were elucidated by NMR and high-resolution mass spectrometry, and their absolute configurations were determined by comparison of their experimental and calculated electronic circular dichroism (ECD) values. All the compounds were assayed for their inhibitory activities against yeast a-glucosidase. The results demonstrated that compounds 3, 8-9, 11, 13, 19-21, and 24-26 had strong inhibitory activities against a-glucosidase, with compound 11 (IC50 = 0.87 +/- 0.05 mu M) exhibiting the strongest activity. The structure-activity relationships were preliminarily summarized. Moreover, enzyme kinetics showed that compound 8 was a noncompetitive inhibitor, compounds 11, 24-26 were anticompetitive, and compounds 9 and 13 were mixed-competitive.

Automated summary

New stilbenoids with inhibitory activity against yeast a-glucosidase were isolated from Cajanus cajan leaves. The structures and activities of these compounds were determined, and the structure-activity relationships were summarized. These findings contribute to the understanding of the pharmacological effects of Cajanus cajan and the development of related drugs.