New ent-kaurane diterpenoid acids from Nouelia insignis Franch and their anti-inflammatory activity

Eleven undescribed ent-kaurane-type diterpenoid acids, namely noueinsiancins A-K (1-11), together with sixteen related known analogs (12-27) were isolated from Nouelia insignis Franch. The chemical structures and absolute configurations of the new compounds were confirmed by the extensive spectroscopic data, electronic circular dichroism (ECD) data analysis and single crystal X-ray diffraction. Additionally, the anti-inflammatory assay was applied to estimate the nitric oxide (NO) inhibitory activities of all compounds by using lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced RAW 264.7 cells in vitro. The results revealed that 4-7 and 13-17 significantly inhibited NO production at the concentrations of 2.5 mu M, 5.0 mu M and 10.0 mu M. Meanwhile, compounds 6 and 7 were found to down-regulate the protein expression levels of IL-6 and INF-alpha, in RAW 264.7 cells induced by LPS in a dose-dependent manner. In conclusion, these findings provided the reference values for exploring the new chemicals with biological activities from this genus.