New cytotoxic and anti-inflammatory compounds isolated from Morus alba L.

Six Diels-Alder adducts (1-6) and nine prenylated flavanones (7-15) were isolated from the root bark of Morus alba L. Among them, soroceal B (1) and sanggenol Q (7) were new compounds. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of extensive spectroscopic methods, including 1D and 2D NMR techniques. Compounds 1-3, 9, 10, 12, 13 and 15 exhibited cytotoxic activity against five human tumour lines and compound 2 inhibited significantly selective cytotoxic activities towards HL-60 and AGS cells with IC50 of 3.4 and 3.6 μM. Compounds 3, 5, 9 and 12 exhibited moderate inhibitory activity against nitric oxide production in LPS-activated RAW264.7.