Four new benzofurans from seeds of Styrax perkinsiae.

Four new benzofurans trans-5-(3-hydroxypropyl)-7-methoxy-2-[2,3-dihydro-3-hydroxymethyl-7-methoxy-2-(3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenyl)-benzofuran-5-yl]benzofuran (1), (E)-5-(2-formylvinyl)-7-methoxy-2-(3,4-methylenedioxyphenyl)benzofuran (2), 5-(3-butanoyloxypropyl)-7-methoxy-2-(3,4-methylenedioxyphenyl)benzofuran (3), and 5-(3-hydroxypropyl)-7-hydroxy-2-(3,4-methylenedioxyphenyl) benzofuran (4) were isolated from the seeds of Styrax perkinsiae, together with egonol (5), demethoxyegonol (6), egonol acetate (7), demethoxyegonol acetate (8), egonol glucoside (9), egonol gentiobioside (10), egonol gentiotrioside (11), beta-sitosterol (12), and beta-daucosterol (13). Their structures were established by spectroscopic and chemical methods. Compounds 1 and 4 exhibited cytotoxic activity in vitro using two breast cancer cell lines MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231.