Structure elucidation of antiproliferative bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloids from Anisocycla grandidieri from the Madagascar dry forest

Antiproliferative bioassay-guided fractionation of the ethanol extract of the stems of Anisocycla grandidieri led to the isolation of the known alkaloids stebisimine (1), (+)-1,2-dehydrotelobine (2), (+)-2'-norcocsuline (3) and puetogaline B (4). Herein, we report the full NMR assignments of all compounds and the X-ray crystallography of single crystals of compounds 1 and 3. Compounds 2 and 3 showed moderate antiproliferative activity against the A2780 human ovarian cancer cell line with IC50 values of 4.1 ± 0.3 and 2.7 ± 0.3 μM, respectively, and they also displayed selective activity toward the H460 (large cell lung cancer), MCF-7 (breast ductal carcinoma), and UACC-257 (melanoma) cell lines. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.