Cytotoxicity of cardenolides and cardenolide glycosides from Asclepias curassavica

A new cardenolide, 12 beta, 14 beta-dihydroxy-3 beta, 19-epoxy-3 alpha-methoxy-5 alpha-card-20(22)-enolide (6), and a new doubly linked cardenolide glycoside, 12 beta-hydroxycalotropin (13), together with eleven known compounds, coroglaucigenin (1), 12 beta-hydroxycoroglaucigenin (2), calotropagenin (3), desglucouzarin (4), 6'-O-feruloyl-desglucouzarin (5), calotropin (7), uscharidin (8), asclepin (9), 16 alpha-hydroxyasclepin (10), 16 alpha-acetoxycalotropin (11), and 16 alpha-acetoxyasclepin (12), were isolated from the aerial part of ornamental milkweed, Asclepias curassavica and chemically elucidated through spectral analyses. All the isolates were evaluated for their cytotoxic activity against HepG2 and Raji cell lines. The results showed that asclepin (9) had the strongest cytotoxic activity with an IC50 value of 0.02 mu M against the two cancer cell lines and the new compound 13 had significant cytotoxic activity with IC50 values of 0.69 and 1.46 mu M, respectively. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.