Cytotoxic and Anti-inflammatory Constituents from Juncus effusus

A new sesquilignan effususin E (1) and a new long chain fatty enamide effususin F (2), together with eight known compounds were isolated from the medullae of Juncus effusus. The structures of 1 and 2 were elucidated by detailed spectroscopic analysis including H-1 and C-13 NMR, COSY, HSQC, HMBC, and HRMS, while the structures of the known compounds were deduced from comparison of their spectral data with those in the literature. The new compounds 1 and 2 were evaluated against five human cancer cell lines (SHSY-5Y, SMMC-7721, HepG-2, Hela, and MCF-7) by CCK-8 assay, but only 1 exhibited weak cytotoxic activity against SMMC-7721 with IC50 value of 57.5 mu m. Inhibitory effects of 1 and 2 on nitric oxide (NO) production in lipopolysaccharide-induced RAW264.7 macrophages were also evaluated, and they were found to exhibit good inhibitory activities with IC50 values of 8.59 and 13.73 mu m, respectively.