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

Abstract

The roots of Zanthoxylum gilletii have been chemically investigated and led to the isolation and characterization of nine compounds including three benzo[c]phenanthridine alkaloids oxychelerythrine (1), angoline (2) and arnottianamide (3); two glycosylated flavonoids hesperidin (4) and its analogue neohesperidin (5) along with four common specialized metabolites including sesamin (6), lupeol (7), β-sitosterol (8) and its derivative daucosterol (9). Their structures were established based on their recorded 1D and 2D-NMR data. Some compounds (1, 2, 3, 6 and 7) 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 3, 6-9, all the four others have been for the first time isolated from Z. gilletii (Rutaceae).