Pyrola rotundifolia (Pyrolaceae) has been used for the treatment for neuralgia, gastric hemorrhage, pulmonary hemorrhage, and arthritic diseases as a traditional Chinese medicine. The water extract of the plant was reported to inhibit the growth of many kinds of human pathogenic bacilli in vitro.1) Thus far only nine compounds, i.e. arbutin, homoarbutin, isohomoarbutin, N-benzyl-2-naphthylamine, chimaphilin, quercetin, gallic acid, protocatechuic acid, and ursolic acid have been isolated from P. rotundifolia.2-4) Wang et al. reported that chimaphilin, N-benzyl-2-naphthylamine, and gallic acid inhibited the growth of the leukemia cell line P388.3) Kosuge et al. reported that anti-inflammatory and analgesic principles of P. rotundifolia were identified as ursolic acid and chimaphilin by in vivo models.4) The focus was set on poplar constituents of P. rotundifolia in this report, as a part of the studies on the hydrophilic bioactive constituents from Chinese medicines. 5,6) The 60% aqueous acetone extract of the whole herb of P. rotundifolia was subjected to column chromatography on MCI gel CHP 20P, Cosmosil 75 C 18 -OPN and TSK gel Toyopearl HW-40F to yield one novel phenolic glycoside dimer, pyrolaside A (1), and one novel phenolic glycoside trimer, pyrolaside B (2), together with two known phenolic glycosides homoarbutin (3) and isohomoarbutin (4).
Results and DiscussionCompound 1 for an aromatic ring suggested that compound 1 was a phenolic compound, and the UV absorption also indicated the presence of an aromatic moiety (201.1, 292.7 nm). In the 1 H-NMR spectrum (Table 1), the meta-correlated signals at d 6.96 (1H, d, Jϭ2.7 Hz, H-2) and d 6.91 (1H, d, Jϭ2.7 Hz, H-6) defined a 1,3,4,5-tetrasubstituted aromatic ring, which was confirmed in the 13 C-NMR spectrum by four quaternary aromatic carbon peaks at d 153.1 (C-1), 129.0 (C-3), 148.4 (C-4), and 129.2 (C-5) and two methine peaks at d 120.6 (C-2), and 119.0 (C-6). The high field of 1 H-NMR spectrum showed one aromatic methyl at d 2.25 (3H, s, H-7). The linkage between the methyl group and aromatic ring, established unambiguously by an HMBC experiment, concluded that 1 was the analogue of homoarbutin. The molecular formula showed that 1 was the dehydro homoarbutin dimer. The signals in the NMR spectra indicated the symmetry of the two homoarbutin units in the molecule. The linkage between homoarbutin units must be located on C-5 and C-5Ј according to the 13 C-NMR spectrum. The glucosyl moiety was identified by acid hydrolysis of 1 and comparison with authentic sample. The b-stereochemistry of anomeric carbon was determined by the coupling constant (Jϭ7.4 Hz) of anomeric proton.7) With all of these evidence, compound 1 was identified as 5-5Ј-dehydro-di(3-methyl-4-hydroxy-phenyl-1-O-b-Dglucopyranoside), and given the trivial name pyrolaside A.Compound 2 was obtained as a white amorphous powder. The positive and negative ESI-MS showed quasimolecular ion peaks at m/z 877 [MϩNa] ϩ and 853 [MϪH] ϩ , respectively, indicating a molecular weight of 854. The molecu...