Antiproliferative compounds of Artabotrys madagascariensis from the Madagascar rainforest.

Bioassay-guided fractionation of an ethanol extract of Artabotrys madagascariensis led to the isolation of the new compound artabotrene (1), two butenolides (2 and 3), and the tetracyclic triterpene polycarpol (4). Structure elucidation was determined on the basis of one and two-dimensional NMR, and absolute configuration of compounds 2-4 was verified by analysis of CD and optical rotation spectra. Two of the isolates, melodorinol (2) and acetylmelodorinol (3), were found to display antiproliferative activity against five different tumour cell lines with IC50 values ranging from 2.4 to 12 microM.