Antiproliferative effect of secofriedelanophyllemblicine, a triterpenoid present in the roots of L.

P L. is a widely distributed tropical medicinal plant with good therapeutic properties. In the present study, the chemical constituents isolation of the roots of were carried out and six known compounds (-) were purified and their structures were determined by means of spectroscopic analysis. The known triterpenoid, secofriedelanophyllemblicine (), was selected to check for its cytotoxic effect on a series of human tumor cells and normal cells. Secofriedelanophyllemblicine exhibited cell growth inhibition specifically on MCF-7 breast cancer cells when compared to other tested cell lines. Further flow cytometric analysis showed that secofriedelanophyllemblicine could inhibit cell proliferation and induced G2 phase arrest in the cell-cycle progression of MCF-7 cells. The gathered results suggest that secofriedelanophyllemblicine is a cell-cycle regulator in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells and might be used as a candidate chemopreventive agent for breast cancer prevention and intervention.