Polyprenylated acylphloroglucinols, featured a highly oxygenated bicyclo[3.3.1]-nonane-2,4,9-trione or bicyclo[3.2.1]-octane-2,4,8-trione core decorated with C 5 H 9 or C 10 H 17 (prenyl, geranyl, etc.) side chains, were only isolated from the Guttiferae plants so far.1) This type of metabolites were reported to possess a wide variety of biological activities such as antimicrobial, antidepressant, antioxidant, cytotoxic, and anti-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) effects.
2-7)As an important member of the family Guttiferae, the genus Hypericum have been proved to be a prolific source of this special type metabolites. [8][9][10][11] H. beanii N. Robson is a shrub of this genus and widely distributed in Guizhou and Yunnan Provinces, P. R. China. 12) Two anti-staphylococcal acylphloroglucinols have been isolated from this plant previously.13) Our phytochemical investigation on the methanol extract of this plant led to the isolation of four new acylphloroglucinols, hyperbeanols A-D (1-4), together with the known hypercalin B (5), 14) (1S,4S,5S,10R)-4,10-guaianediol (6), 15) (ϩ)-alismoxide (7), 16) guaia-6,10(14)-dien-4-ol (8), 17 calycinoxanthone D (9), 18) ugaxanthone (10), 19) 2,5-dihydroxyxanthone (11), 20) 1,3-dihydroxy-6-methoxyxanthone (12), 21) 3,6,7-trihydroxy-1-methoxyxanthone (13), 22) 1,2,5-trihydroxyxanthone (14),28) The cytotoxicity of 1-5 against the cancer cell lines SK-BR-3, HL-60, SMMC-7721, PANC-1, MCF-7, and K562 were examined. Reported herein are the isolation, structure elucidation, and cytotoxic evaluation of compounds 1-5. The MeOH extract (611 g) of the aerial parts of H. beanii (5.3 kg) was successively partitioned with petroleum ether and ethyl acetate. The petroleum ether soluble fraction (252 g) was subjected to silica gel column chromatography, Sephadex LH-20, and preparative HPLC to afford compounds 1-8. The ethyl acetate portion (167 g) was also purified by column chromatography, semipreparative, and preparative HPLC to obtain compounds 9-20.Compound 1 (d 197.3, 113.6, 193.7), one monobenzoyl group (d 197.0, 136.9, 127.8ϫ2, 128.0ϫ2, 132.2) Four new acylphloroglucinols with an unusual 6/6/5 spirocyclic skeleton, hyperbeanols A-D (1-4), were isolated from the methanol extract of Hypericum beanii along with 16 known compounds. Their structures were established on the basis of spectroscopic and X-ray diffraction analysis. Hyperbeanols A-C were three stereoisomers different only at the relative configuration of C-4 and C-13, which were distinguished by the nuclear Overhauser effect spectroscopy (NOESY) spectroscopic data in combination with the single X-ray analysis of hyperbeanol A (1). The cytotoxic activity of hyperbeanols A-D against the cancer cell lines SK-BR-3, HL-60, SMMC-7721, PANC-1, MCF-7, and K562 was also evaluated.