Biology

Biological activity

HeLa

Biochemistry

Traditional Chinese medicine

Medicinal plants

Human breast

Schisandra chinensis

Stereochemistry

Phytochemical

Alternative medicine

Genetics

Terpene

Celastraceae

Pharmacognosy

In vitro

Triterpene

Antioxidant

Flavonoid

Medicine

Chemistry

Cell

Cancer

Traditional medicine

Cancer cell

Pathology

Fitoterapia

Phytochemical study on a non-medicinal part of a plant material for herbal medicine, the roots of Schisandra chinensis, was conducted to isolate five new triterpenes, schinensins A–D (1–4) and 3-O-methylchangnanic acid (5), together with 21 known compounds including 10 triterpenes, one sterol, two sesquiterpenes, seven lignans, and one flavonoid. The structures of new triterpenes (1–5) were assigned on the basis of spectroscopic analyses aided with TDDFT ECD calculations. Schinensin A (1) was a dinortriterpene possessing 28-norschiartane skeleton, while schinensins B–D (2–4) were assigned as 3,4:9,10-disecocycloartane, 3,4-secocycloartane, and cycloartane triterpenes, respectively. In an evaluation of antiproliferative activities against human cancer cell lines, some triterpenes exhibited significant activities against human breast carcinoma MCF-7 cells as compared to the other cell lines (A549, HeLa, and RPMI8226).

Studies on non-medicinal parts of plant materials: Triterpenes from the roots of Schisandra chinensis