A new phenolic compound with anticancer activity from the wood of Millettia leucantha

Abstract

A new phenolic compound, 1-(3-hydroxy-4-methoxyphenyl)-3-(2,4-dihydroxy-5- methoxyphenyl) propan-1-ol, named as millettinol (1), along with six known compounds, medicarpin (2), 4-hydroxy-3-methoxy-8,9-methylenedioxypterocarpan (3), 5,4′-dihydroxy-7,8-dimethoxyisoflavone (4), physcion (5), (R)-(-)-mellein (6) and isoliquiritigenin (7), were isolated from the wood of Millettia leucantha. The structures of the compounds were determined by an analysis of their spectroscopic data. Some of the isolates were tested for anticancer activity. Compound 1 exhibited strong cytotoxicity against the BCA-1 tumor cell lines with an IC50 = 3.44 μg/mL. © 2011 The Pharmaceutical Society of Korea and Springer Netherlands.