Aporphine Alkaloids from Illigera aromatica from Guangxi Province, China

Three undescribed aporphine alkaloids laurodionine B (1), illigerine A (2), and N-formyl-laurolitsine (3) were isolated from the methanolic extracts of the Chinese medicinal plant, Illigera aromatica, together with three known analogues (4-6). The chemical structures of 1-6 were identified by spectroscopic methods including 1D and 2D NMR (¹H, ¹³C, COSY, HSQC, and HMBC) and high resolution mass spectrometry (HRESIMS). Compounds 1-3 showed moderate inhibitory activities in vitro against two cultured tumor cell lines, Hela and SMMC7721, with IC₅₀ values of 32.42-62.90 μM. Only compound 1 had in vitro cytotoxic activity against Bcap37 cells, with the IC₅₀ value of 90.61 μM.