In a screening program directed to the discovery of new anticancer agents from Madagascan plants, ethyl acetate extracts of Croton barorum and C. goudotii showed strong cytotoxic activity, with 100% inhibition at 10 μg/mL in a primary screen using the murine lymphocytic leukemia P388 cell line. Bioassay-guided fractionation led to the isolation of two new 3,4-seco-atisane diterpenoids, crotobarin (1) and crotogoudin (2). Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic data interpretation. Compounds 1 and 2 produced a net progression in the number of cells arrested at the G2/M growth stage in the cell cycle of the K562 human leukemia cell line at 4 μM.

In our continuing phytochemical screening program aimed at finding major constituents of endemic Madagascar plants as potential templates for semisynthesis, we investigated the ethyl acetate extract of stem bark of Garcinia verrucosa. Fractionation of the extract led to the isolation of the major compound named garcicosin. Its structure was elucidated by spectroscopic methods including 1D and 2D homo-and heteronuclear NMR techniques (COSY, HSQC, HMBC and NOESY), and HR-mass spectrometry.