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Planta Med 1998; 64(4): 385-386
DOI: 10.1055/s-2006-957460
Letters

© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

Phytochemical and Biological Investigation of Begonia heracleifolia

Barbara Frei1 , Michael Heinrich2 , Dieter Herrmann3 , Jimmy E. Orjala1 , 4 , Joachim Schmitt3 , Otto Sticher1
  • 1Department of Pharmacy, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
  • 2Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology, Albert-Ludwigs-University, Freiburg, Germany
  • 3Boehringer Mannheim GmbH, Dept. of Molecular Pharmacology/New Indications, Mannheim, Germany
  • 4AgraQuest Inc., Davis, USA
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Publication History

1997

1997

Publication Date:
04 January 2007 (online)

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Abstract

From the rhizomes of Begonia heracleifolia six known cucurbitacins (1-6) were isolated. Based on spectral data (1D and 2D1H-, 13C-NMR, ESI- and CI-MS) the structures were established as cucurbitacin B (1), cucurbitacin D (2), 23,24-dihydrocucurbitacin D (3), 23,24-dihydrocucurbitacin F (4), 2-O-β-glucopyranosyl-cucurbitacin B (5), and 2-O-β-glucopyranosyl-cucurbitacin D (6). Four of them (3-6) were so far not reported as constituents of Begonia spp. Varyingly strong antiproliferative activity towards tumor and immune cells was observed for three compounds (1 -3), due to different structural features.