Chemical constituents from Pleione yunnanensis

This study was to investigate the chemical constituents from pseudobulbs of Pleione yunnanensis, one of the source of traditional Chinese medicine "Shancigu". The chemical constituents were isolated by various chromatography methods, including silica gel, ODS, Sephadex LH-20, and semi-preparative HPLC. Fourteen compounds were isolated and identified from the EtOAc fraction of 90% ethanol extract, including five dihydrophenanthrenes, four bibenzyls, two triterpenoids, and three phenylacrylic acids. Their structures were identified on the basis of the spectral data as 4, 7-dihydroxy-2-methoxy-9,10-dihydrophenanthrene (1), 4, 7-dihydroxy-1-(p-hydroxybenzyl)-2-methoxy-9,10-dihydrophenanthrene (2), (2,3-trans)-2-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl) -3-hydroxymethyl-10-methoxy-2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-phenanthro[2,1-b]furan-7-ol (3), pleionesin B (4), blestriarene A (5), batatasin III (6), 3, 3'-dihydroxy-2-(p-hydroxybenzyl) -5-methoxybibenzyl (7), 3', 5-dihydroxy-2-(p-hydroxybenzyl) -3-methoxybibenzyl (8), 3,3'-dihydroxy-2,6-bis(4-hydroxybenzyl) -5-methoxybibenzyl (9), triphyllol (10), pholidotin (11), (E) -p-hydroxycinnamic acid (12), (E)-ferulic acid (13), and (E)-ferulic acid hexacosyl ester (14). Compounds 5,10-14 were separated from this plant for the first time.