Chemical constituents and derivatization of melodorinol from the roots of Melodorum fruticosum.

Chemical investigation of the CH2Cl2 and MeOH crude extracts of the roots of Melodorum fruticosum Lour. led to the isolation of 15 known compounds, of which 5, 10, and 12-15 are reported for the first time from this plant. In addition, melodorinol (7) was derivatized to afford six new (7a-7d and 7f-7g) analogues and one known compound (7e). Their structures were identified on the basic of spectroscopic data Most of them were evaluated for their cytotoxicity against KB, HeLa, MCF-7 and HepG-2 cell lines. Compounds 4 and 7b were the most potent to all cell lines.