A study on medicinal plants from Malaysia focused on Acalypha siamensis Oliv. ex Gage. isolation and structure of a new tetraterpene, acalyphaser A.

As a part of our chemical studies on Malaysian medicinal plants, five Malaysian plant species were evaluated by cytotoxicity assays using P388 murine leukemia cells. Since Acalypha siamensis exhibited the strongest growth inhibition, its constituents were studied as the object of search for bioactive materials. A novel tetraterpene, acalyphaser A (1), was isolated in the course of the purification. Its structure was elucidated on the basis of 1D- and 2D-NMR techniques, and mass spectrometry.