Benzo[<i>c</i>]phenanthridine alkaloids and glycosylated flavonoids from the roots of <i>Zanthoxylum gilletii</i> (Rutaceae)

Abstract

The roots of <i>Zanthoxylum gilletii</i> have been chemically investigated and led to the isolation and characterization of nine compounds including three benzo[<i>c</i>]phenanthridine alkaloids oxychelerythrine (<b>1</b>), angoline (<b>2</b>) and arnottianamide (<b>3</b>); two glycosylated flavonoids hesperidin (<b>4</b>) and its analogue neohesperidin (<b>5</b>) along with four common specialized metabolites including sesamin (<b>6</b>), lupeol (<b>7</b>), β-sitosterol (<b>8</b>) and its derivative daucosterol (<b>9</b>). Their structures were established based on their recorded 1D and 2D-NMR data. Some compounds (<b>1</b>, <b>2</b>, <b>3</b>, <b>6</b> and <b>7</b>) did not display a cytotoxic activity until the highest concentration of 200 μM against the human cell lines MCF-7 and A549. The chemotaxonomic relevance of this study has been discussed. To the best of our knowledge, except for the five compounds <b>3</b>, <b>6</b>-<b>9</b>, all the four others have been for the first time isolated from <i>Z. gilletii</i> (Rutaceae).