New insecticidal rocaglamide derivatives from flowers of Aglaia duperreana (Meliaceae)

Abstract Flowers of Aglaia duperreana collected in Vietnam yielded thirteen insecticidal cyclopentatetrahydrobenzofuran derivatives of the rocaglamide type including five compounds which proved to be new natural products. Structure elucidation of the new compounds and their insecticidal activity against larvae of the pest insect Spodoptera littoralis are described. Most of the isolated rocaglamide derivatives exhibited strong to moderate insecticidal activity. The most active compounds were similar with regard to their bioactivity to the well known natural insecticide azadirachtin. However, replacement of the OH-group at C-8b (that is a characteristic structural feature of most known rocaglamide congeners) by an OC 2 H 5 -substituent as present in two of the isolated new derivatives was found to result in a loss of insecticidal activity.