Anti-inflammatory and hepatoprotective cembranoid alcohols from the Gum Resin of Boswellia carterii.

Five undescribed cembranoid alcohols, boscartinols A-E (1-5) were discovered from the gum resin of Boswellia carterii. Their structures were elucidated by analyzing the spectroscopic data. Notably, all these five compounds preserved an isopropyl type cembranoid skeleton, featured the same groups of one epoxy ring at C-C and one hydroxy group at C-11, as well as two double bonds migrating from C to C and one hydroxy group from C to C within the cembranoid structure. These cembranoids were evaluated for the hepatoprotective and anti-inflammatory activities using two cell models of APAP-induced HepG2 and LPS-induced RAW 264.7. For hepatoprotective activity, compounds 1 and 5 showed remarkable hepatoprotective activity (inhibition rate of 51.6% and 39.8%, respectively) at 10 μM, with the other three compounds of 2-4 showing less potently hepatoprotective. For anti-inflammatory activity, compounds 2-4 showed significant inhibitory effects on NO produced by LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cell (IC values of 13.40 μM, 7.08 μM and 14.26 μM), with the other two compounds of 1 and 5 showing less potently anti-inflammatory activities.