Cytotoxic and anti-inflammatory activities of phenanthrenes from the medullae of Juncus effusus L.

Bioactivity guided phytochemical investigation of the ethanol extract of the medullae of Juncus effusus resulted in the isolation of two new phenanthrenes, 8-hydroxymethyl-2-hydroxyl-1-methyl-5-vinyl-9,10-dihydrophenanthrene ( 1 ), and 5-(1-methoxyethyl)-1-methyl-phenanthren-2,7-diol ( 2 ) together with 15 known phenanthrenoids ( 3 – 17 ). The chemical structures of 1 and 2 were established by a combination of spectroscopic techniques. Compounds 1 – 15 and 17 were evaluated for their cytotoxic activities against five human cancer cell lines (SHSY-5Y, SMMC-7721, HepG-2, Hela and MCF-7) by CCK-8 assay, and their anti-inflammatory activities were also evaluated by inhibition on NO production in LPS-activated murine macrophage RAW 264.7 cells.