Carandinol: First isohopane triterpene from the leaves of Carissa carandas L. and its cytotoxicity against cancer cell lines

A new triterpene carandinol (1) was isolated from the leaves of Carissa carandas L., along with five known compounds, betulinic acid (2), β-sitosterol-3-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (3), oleanolic acid (4), ursolic acid (5) and 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (6). The structure of compound 1 was deduced as 3β,21α-dihydroxyisohopane by exhaustive spectroscopic analyses. The known compounds 2–6 were identified by comparison with the reported spectral data. Compound 1 was evaluated for cytotoxicity, immunomodulatory, antiglycation, antioxidant and enzyme inhibition activity. It exhibited significant in vitro cytotoxicity to every cell line tested (HeLa, PC-3 and 3T3) and was relatively more toxic to human cervical cancer (HeLa) cell line. This is the first report of the isolation of an isohopane triterpene from the genus Carissa. Carandinol also represents the first example of a cytotoxic isohopane.