Constituents of the Vietnamese medicinal plant Streptocaulon juventas and their antiproliferative activity against the human HT-1080 fibrosarcoma cell line.

The methanolic extract of roots of Streptocaulon juventas, having shown strong antiproliferative activity against the highly metastatic human HT-1080 fibrosarcoma cell line, was subjected to activity-guided isolation to yield 16 cardenolides including five new ones, acovenosigenin A 3-O-beta-digitoxopyranoside (1), digitoxigenin gentiobioside (2), digitoxigenin 3-O-[O-beta-glucopyranosyl-(1-->6)-O-beta-glucopyranosyl-(1-->4)-3-O-acetyl-beta-digitoxopyranoside] (3), digitoxigenin 3-O-[O-beta-glucopyranosyl-(1-->6)-O-beta-glucopyranosyl-(1-->4)-O-beta-digitalopyranosyl-(1-->4)-beta-cymaropyranoside] (4), and periplogenin 3-O-(4-O-beta-glucopyranosyl-beta-digitalopyranoside) (5), and two new hemiterpenoids, (4R)-4-hydroxy-3-isopropylpentyl beta-rutinoside (6) and (R)-2-ethyl-3-methylbutyl beta-rutinoside (7), together with two known phenylpropanoids and a known phenylethanoid. The isolated cardenolides strongly inhibited the proliferation of the HT-1080 cell line (IC(50) values, 54-1600 nM).