Phytochemical and cytotoxic studies on the leaves of Calotropis gigantea.

A new lignan, 9'-methoxypinoresinol (1), and two new glycosylated 5-hydroxymethylfurfurals, calofurfuralside A (2), and calofurfuralside B (3), together with nine known compounds (4-12) have been isolated from the active fractions, CHCl3 (IC50, 0.32μgmL-1) and EtOAc (IC50, 0.55μgmL-1) fractions of the leaves of Calotropis gigantea. Their structures were elucidated based on NMR and MS data. Among the isolated compounds, compounds 1 and 9 exhibited potent cytotoxicity against PANC-1 human pancreatic cancer cell line under the normoglycemic condition with IC50 values of 3.7 and 3.3μM, respectively. 9'-Methoxypinoresinol (1) significantly inhibited the colony formation of PANC-1 cells in a concentration-dependent manner.