New Chlorine‐Containing Sesquiterpenoid from Artemisia Blepharolepis

Abstract One new chlorinated sesquiterpenoid (compound 1 , ablepharolide) and twenty‐one known compounds were obtained from the aerial parts of Artemisia blepharolepis . Their structures were established by spectroscopic methods and the absolute configuration was further determined by single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction analysis for ablepharolide. Ablepharolide is a rare sesquiterpenoid with a 4‐methyl‐7‐isopropyl‐9‐ethyl‐perhydroindene skeleton that incorporates a chlorine atom. It significantly inhibited the growth of MCF‐7 cells with IC 50 value of 8.34±0.77 μM. Further investigations demonstrated that ablepharolide induced morphological changes in MCF‐7 cells, inhibited proliferation in a time‐ and dose‐dependent manner. Furthermore, western blot analysis revealed that ablepharolide induced a significant increase in cleaved caspase‐8, cleaved caspase‐3 and cleaved poly(ADP‐ribose) polymerase (PARP) in MCF‐7 cells. All of these results supported that ablepharolide induced exogenous apoptosis in MCF‐7 cells.