New lignanamides and alkaloids from Chelidonium majus and their anti-inflammation activity

Abstract Two new lignanamides, majusamides A and B (1 and 2), and two new alkaloids, chelidoniumine (3) and tetrahydrocoptisine N-oxide (4), together with six known hydroxycinnamic acid amides (HCCA) were isolated from the 75% ethanol extract of Chelidonium majus through the silica gel, Sephadex LH-20, MCI, ODS column chromatography, and semi-HPLC. Their structures were determined on the basis of spectroscopic data and physico-chemical methods. The absolute configurations of 1–3 were determined by electronic circular dichroism (ECD) calculations. The anti-inflammatory activities of all the isolates on the NO production in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced macrophages were evaluated. Compounds 7 and 9 exhibited moderate inhibitory activity with IC50 values of 25.3 ± 0.5 and 23.5 ± 1.7 μM, respectively.