New chemical constituents from the Piper betle Linn. (Piperaceae).

The phytochemical investigation of chloroform extract from Piper betle var. haldia, Piperaceae, leaves has resulted in the isolation of two new chemical constituents which were identified as 1-n-dodecanyloxy resorcinol (H1) and desmethylenesqualenyl deoxy-cepharadione-A (H4), on the basis of spectroscopic data 1D NMR (1H and 13C) and 2D NMR (1H-1H COSY and HMBC) as well as ESI-MS, FT-IR and HR-ESI-MS analyses. Compounds H1 and H4 showed excellent antioxidant DPPH free radical scavenging activity with IC50 values of 7.14 μg/mL and 8.08 μg/mL compared to ascorbic acid as a standard antioxidant drug with IC50 value of 2.52 μg/mL, respectively. Evaluation of cytotoxic activity against human hepatoma cell line (PLC-PRF-5) showed moderate effect with the GI50 values of 35.12 μg/mL for H1, 31.01 μg/mL for H4, compared to Doxorubicin® as a standard cytotoxic drug with GI50 value of 18.80 μg/mL.