The essential oils of the aerial parts of Ocimum basilicum Linn.var. pilosum (Willd.) Benth., an endemic medicinal plant growing in China, was obtained by hydrodistillation and analysed by GC-MS. Fifteen compounds, representing 74.19% of the total oil were identified. The main components were as follows: linalool (29.68%), (Z)-cinnamic acid methyl ester (21.49%), cyclohexene (4.41%), α- cadinol (3.99%), 2,4-diisopropenyl-1-methyl-1-vinylcyclohexane (2.27%), 3,5-pyridine-dicarboxylic acid, 2,6-dimethyl-diethyl ester (2.01%), β-cubebene (1.97%), guaia-1(10),11-diene (1.58%), cadinene (1.41%) (E)-cinnamic acid methyl ester (1.36%) and β-guaiene (1.30%). The essential oils showed significant antifungal activity against some plant pathogenic fungi.

The new compound Z-4-2 was isolated from the fermentation broth of Streptomyces djakartensis NW35, together with the known compound N-acetyltryptamine (Z- 9-2) by bioassay-guided fractionation. Its chemical structure was elucidated as (E)-2-methoxy-1,4 naphthoquinone-1-oxime (Z- 4-2) mainly by NMR analyses and MS spectral data. Their antibacterial activities against bacteria were evaluated by the filter paper method. The results of indicated that these compounds possess significant antibacterial activities.

In order to develop new biorational pesticides, ten new 6-substituted ester derivatives of Celangulin-V were designed and synthesized. The structures of the new derivatives were confirmed by IR, ¹H-NMR, ¹³C-NMR and ESI-MS spectral analysis. Insecticidal activities of these compounds were tested against the third-instar larvae of Mythimna separata. Two derivatives (1.1, 1.2) showed higher insecticidal activities than Celangulin-V, with mortality of 75.0% and 83.3%, respectively. While four compounds (1.3, 1.4, 1.7, 1.8) denoted lower insecticidal activities, the others (1.5, 1.6, 1.9, 1.10) revealed no activities at a concentration of 10 mg.mL⁻¹. The results suggest that C-6 substitutions of Celangulin-V are very important in determining the insecticidal activities of its ester-derivatives. That the acetyl (1.1) and propionyl (1.2) derivatives possessed much higher insecticidal activities than Celangulin-V itself supported the view that Celangulin-V has the potential to be a lead structure of semi-synthetic green insecticides.

A new sesquiterpene polyol ester with a β-dihydroagarofuran skeleton, NW37 (1), and three known compounds NW13 (2), NW16 (3) and NW35 (4) were isolated by bioassay-guided fractionation from the highly polar MeOH extracts of the root bark of Celastrus angulatus. Their chemical structures were elucidated mainly by analyses of MS and NMR spectral data. The insecticidal activity of compound 1 against 4^th instar Mythimna separata larvae with a KD₅₀ value of 252.3 μg·g^-1 was demonstrated.

The title mol-ecule, C(16)H(24)O(8)S, is a dihydro-agrofuran derivative and has a heteropolycyclic structure. One cyclohexane ring exhibits a chair conformation and the other a non-chair conformation. In the crystal structure there is an inter-molecular C-H⋯O hydrogen-bonding inter-action to stabilize the packing.