Vernonia amygdalina Del. is a traditional medicinal plant and vegetable originating from tropical Africa. The phytochemical investigation of V. amygdalina led to eight undescribed polyhydric stigmastane-type steroids, vernonin M–T (1–8). Their gross structures and stereochemistry were elucidated by HR-ESI-MS, 1D and 2D NMR spectra, X-ray diffraction, quantum chemical computation of the ECD spectrum, and the in situ dimolybdenum CD method. The anti-neuroinflammatory activity of the isolated compounds was performed in BV-2 microglia cells. As a result, compound 1 displayed a notable anti-neuroinflammatory effect via suppressing the LPS-induced IκB degradation and restricting the activation of the PI3K/AKT and p38 MAPK pathways.

(±)-Hypersines A–C (1–3), the three pairs of enantiomerically pure monoterpenoid polyprenylated acylphloroglucinols with an unprecedented 6/6/5/4 fused ring system, were isolated from Hypericum elodeoides. Their structures, including absolute configurations, were elucidated by comprehensive spectroscopic data, single-crystal X-ray diffraction, and quantum chemical calculations. The plausible, biosynthetic pathway of 1–3 was proposed. Moreover, the bioactivity evaluation indicated that 1a might be a novel DNA damage response inhibitor, and could enhance MCF-7 cell sensitivity to the anticancer agent, camptothecin.

Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) is a first-line clinical drug for the treatment of liver diseases. U12, a derivative of UDCA, showed effective anti-hepatoma activities in previous works. However, the low polarity and large doses limited the druglikeness of U12. In this study, the structural modification and optimization of U12 were further investigated and twelve U12 derivatives were synthesized by substitution, esterification and amidation reactions. The evaluation of the cytotoxicity of synthetic derivatives against hepatoma cell lines (HepG2) indicated that U12-I, U12a-d and U12h showed more effective cytotoxic effects on the growth of HepG2 cells than U12, and the preliminary structure–activity relationship was discussed. Among them, U12a exhibited the most potent anti-hepatocellular carcinoma activity. Mechanism studies indicated that U12a inhibited HepG2 cell proliferation by arresting the G0/G1 phase, and suppressed the activation of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway. Further studies showed that U12a induced HepG2 cells apoptosis through activating the caspase signaling pathway. Furthermore, U12a evidently inhibits the growth of HepG2-derived tumor xenografts in vivo without observable adverse effects. Thus, U12a might be considered as a promising candidate for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.