A new indole-alkaloid and a new phenolic-glycoside with cytotoxic activity from Strychnos fendleri

A new indole alkaloid strychnosinol (1) and a new phenolic-glycoside (2) were isolated from the bark and leaves of Strychnos fendleri Sprague & Sandwith, together with six known compounds reported for the first time in this species. The structures of these compounds were determined on the basis of spectroscopic data; mainly those obtained by using 1H and 13C NMR (1D and 2D) and mass spectrometry. Strychnosinol (1) and the phenolic glycoside (2) together with compounds 3–8 were evaluated for cytotoxicity against a panel of five tumour cell lines; IC50 values between 0.090 and 0.227 μM for the human tumour cell lines were observed for compound 2.