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Updated: Jan 28, 2026

Source and Route of Pyrrolizidine Alkaloid Contamination in Tea Samples
Published on: September 28, 2022
Cytotoxic Alkaloids from Leaves of Pilea aff. martinii
Ai Doan Thi Thuy1,2, Van Trinh Thi Thanh1, Huong Doan Thi Mai1
1Advanced Center for Bioorganic Chemistry, Institute of Marine Biochemistry of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), Hanoi, Vietnam.
Abstract:
Two new phenanthroquinolizidine alkaloids (1: and 2: ) and a new piperidine derivative (3: ) were isolated from the leaves of Pilea aff. martinii together with 3 known alkaloids: julandine (4: ), cryptopleurine (5: ), and 1,3,6,6-tetramethyl-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-isoquinolin-8-one (6: ). Their structures were determined by spectral data analyses including mass spectrometry and 2-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance data. The absolute configurations of 1: -3: were established by comparison of their experimental circular dichroism data with the calculated electronic circular dichroism spectra. The isolated compounds were evaluated for their cytotoxicity against 4 cancer cell lines: KB (mouth epidermal carcinoma cells), HepG-2 (human liver hepatocellular carcinoma cells), LU-1 (human lung adenocarcinoma cells), and MCF-7 (human breast cancer cells). The new phenanthroquinolizidine pileamartine D (2: ) showed strong and selective proliferation inhibition toward KB and HepG-2 cells with IC50 values of 25 and 27 nM, respectively. Pileamartine C (1: ), julandine (4: ), and cryptopleurine (5: ) exhibited cytotoxicity against 4 tested cancer cell lines with IC50 values less than 1 µM.
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