| Abstract: | Suspension cell cultures of Maytenus hookeri Loes. (Celastraceae) in SH media were established from the calli induced from the leaves and young stems of M. hookeri on MS media with the supplement of 2 mg/L 2,4-D and 0.1 mg/L KIN (kinetin). Ethyl acetate extract of the cultures showed inhibitory activities against Penicillium avellaneum UC-4376 which was sensitive to maytansinoids. Exhaustive isolation of natural products from a large scale of suspension cell cultures did not yield maytansine instead of affording nine compounds including one novel triterp enoid, named 2,3-diacetoxyl maytenusone (1), and eight known ones including squalene (2), β-sitosterol (3), 2′,3′,4′-triacetyl-sitoindoside Ⅰ (4), salaspermic acid (5), maytenonic acid (6), 2α-hydroxy-maytenonic acid (7), 6,11,12-trihydroxy 8,11,13-abietrien-7-one (8) and 11,12 dihydroxy 8,11,13 abietatrien 7 one (9) elucidated on the basis of 1D and 2D-NMR data. The 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR assignments were made for 1, 5, 6 and 7, while the 13C-NMR assignments for 5 and 6 were revised. The chemical results suggested that the suspension cell cultures of M. hookeri did not produce maytansinoids under the reported experiment conditions. |
