Analysis, isolation and anti-tumour activity of the alkaloids from Ceratocarpus arenarius L

Ceratocarpus arenarius L. is an annual herb belonging to the Amaranthaceae family, of which the crude extracts were found to exhibit significant anti-tumour and antibacterial activity in our early stages of research. In this study, the alkaloids of C. arenarius L were analysed using UPLC-QE-MS and 20 specific alkaloids were firstly profiled in this plant. The column chromatography were applied further for systematic purification of the crude extracts, and six alkaloids were finally isolated and characterised, which were firstly isolated from this plant. The cytotoxicity of the isolated compounds was investigated using KYSE70 cells in vitro and the results indicated that compounds (1) and (5) showed the best inhibitory effects against the KYSE70 with IC₅₀ of 24.26 µg/mL and 31.47 µg/mL, respectively. The action mechanism were studied with network pharmacology and molecular docking to predict the AKT1, CDK2, CDK9 and CASP3 as the potential targets.