Coleus forskohlii (WILLD.) BRIQ. (Labiatae) is largely distributed over the tropical and subtropical regions of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, tropical East Africa and Brazil, and it has been used since ancient times for medical treatment in Hindu and Ayurvedic traditional medicine.1,2) Its characteristic constituents, 8,13-epoxy-labd-14-en-11-one diterpenes, especially the main constituent forskolin, showed positive inotropic, antihypertensive and adenylatecyclase stimulating activities.2-12) The plant was later found in Yunnan Province of China and its aqueous extract has been used as a natural medicine to cure asthma, cough, acute and chronic bronchitis. [10][11][12] Up to now, almost the whole studies have been concentrated on these lipophilic labdane diterpene aglycones, and only two previous studies reported the polar fraction of the whole plant extract, from which only caffeic acid and two monoterpene glycosides were obtained. 13,14) In order to discover more novel and active compounds, further examination of the polar fraction has yielded two new diterpene glycosides, forskoditerpenosides A, B (1, 2) and a new eudesmane sesquiterpene, 4b,7b,11-enantioeudesmantriol (3), whose structures were established on the basis of 1D, 2D NMR and HR-ESI-MS. The relative configuration of 3 was further confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Their isolation and structural elucidation are reported below. Compounds 1 and 2 were tested for effect on isolated guinea pig tracheal spirals in vitro.
Results and DiscussionThe 95% EtOH extract of the whole plant of C. forskohlii afforded compounds 1-3, which were identified as 6b-acetoxy-7b,9a-dihydroxy-8,13-epoxy-labd-14-en-11-one-1a-Ob-D-glucopyranoside (1), 6b,7b-diacetoxy-9a-hydroxy-8,13-epoxy-labd-14-en-11-one-1a-O-b-D-glucopyranoside (2), and 4b,7b,11-enantioeudesmantriol (3).Forskoditerpenoside A (1) . These spectral data were consistent with the characteristics for 8,13-epoxy-labd-14-en-11-one type diterpenes.
8-12)The 1 H-NMR signal at d 5.74 (1H, dd, Jϭ2.8, 4.8 Hz) was assigned to H-6 by its coupling constants. 15,16) The chemical shifts of H-6 and C-6 suggested that an acetyl group was attached to C-6, as confirmed by the cross-peak between d H 5.74 and d C 171.2 in the HMBC spectrum (Fig. 2). Then, the signals at d 2.39 (1H, d, Jϭ2.8 Hz) and 4.28 (1H, d, Jϭ4.8 Hz) were assigned to H-5 and H-7, respectively, interpreted from their coupling constants as well as HMQC and HMBC correlations.15) The signal at d 4.33 (1H, br s), which showed long-range correlations with C-2, C-3, C-5, C-10 and C-20 in the HMBC spectrum, was attributed to H-1, correlated to C-1 at d 86.5 in HMQC spectrum. According to the above analysis, the structure of 1 was very similar to that of coleonol B isolated from this plant earlier, in exception of a signal for an anomeric proton at d 4.21 (1H, d, Jϭ7.8 Hz), linked to the anomeric carbon at d 106.0 in its HMQC spectrum, as well as five oxygenated carbons between d 63.7 and 79.0 and six proton signals between d 3.17 and 3.81. Combining the Mo...