Cytotoxic limonoids from Trichilia americana leaves

Ten cedrelone limonoids were isolated from the leaves of Trichilia americana. These compounds include americanolides A-D (1-4), 1,2-dihydrodeacetylhirtin (5), 1α-hydroxy-1,2-dihydrodeacetylhirtin (6), 1α-hydroxy-1,2-dihydrohirtin (7), 1α-methoxy-1,2-dihydrodeacetylhirtin (8), 11β-hydroxy-12α-propanoyloxycedrelone (9), and 1α,11β-dihydroxy-1,2-dihydrocedrelone (10), as well as two previously reported compounds, deacetylhirtin (11) and hirtin (12). Their structures were characterized on the basis of spectroscopic studies, and the assignment of the absolute configuration of americanolide A (1) was supported by single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies. The cytotoxic activities of all isolated compounds were also evaluated against five human tumour cell lines (HL-60, SMMC-7721, A-549, MCF-7, and SW-480) using an MTS assay. Compounds 11 and 12 showed significant cytotoxicity with IC50 values ranging from 0.1 to 0.5 μM, and compounds 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 exhibited potent or selective cytotoxic activity with IC50 values ranging from 1.0 to 39.6 μM.