Alkaloids from Chelidonium majus and their inhibitory effects on LPS-induced NO production in RAW264.7 cells

A new alkaloid, methyl 2'-(7,8-dihydrosanguinarine-8-yl)acetate (1), together with six known alkaloids, stylopine (2), protopine (3), norchelidonine (4), chelidonine (5), berberine (6), and 8-hydroxydihydrosanguinarine (7), were isolated from Chelidonium majus. Their chemical structures were primarily established using 1D and 2D NMR techniques and mass spectrometry. The anti-inflammatory activity of the isolates was examined for their inhibitory effects on LPS-induced NO production in macrophage RAW264.7 cells. Among them, compounds 5 and 7 showed strong inhibitory activities toward the LPS-induced NO production in macrophage RAW264.7 cells with IC(50) values of 7.3 and 4.5 mu M, respectively. In addition, compounds 5 and 7 inhibited the inductions of COX-2 and iNOS mRNA in dose-dependent manners, indicating that these compounds attenuated the syntheses of these transcripts at the transcriptional level. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.