Isolation, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Phenylpropanoids from the Rhizomes of Alpania galanga

Abstract

Bioactivity guided investigation of the DCM: MeOH (1:1) extract from the rhizomes of Alpinia galanga led to the isolation of phenylpropanoids (1–9) and their structures were established by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, IR and LC-MS/MS. These compounds have been evaluated for their in vitro anticancer activity against the human cancer cell lines A549 (lung cancer), Colo-205 (colon cancer), A431 (skin cancer), NCI H460 (lung cancer), PC-3 (prostate cancer), and HT-29 (colon cancer). Compounds 4 and 9 showed potent anticancer activity (ranging from 1.3–19.7 μg/mL) against all the tested cancer cell lines. In addition, an asymmetric synthesis of acetoxychavicol acetate (1) and trans-p-coumaryl alcohol (4) has been accomplished in six steps starting from readily available p-hydroxybenzaldehyde for the first time. Grignard reaction and Sharpless kinetic resolution reactions were utilized as the key steps to install the basic core.