Phthalide-derived oxaspiroangelioic acids A–C with an unprecedented carbon skeleton from an aqueous extract of the Angelica sinensis root head

A new pair of butylphthalide diastereomers from the roots of Angelica sinensis

A new pair of butylphthalide diastereomers, dangguinolide A (1) and dangguinolide B (2), together with two known butylphthalide were isolated from Angelica sinensis. Their structures were determined by extensive spectroscopic analyses, and the absolute configurations of 1 and 2 were assigned via NMR calculations and ECD calculations. Their anti-inflammatory activities have evaluated in vitro.

Diverse neolignans and lignans from an aqueous extract of the Angelica sinensis root head

Neolignans and lignans with diverse new chemical structures, including eleven pairs of separated chiral enantiomers [(+)-/(-)-1-(+)-/(-)-5, (+)-/(-)-8, (+)-/(-)-10, and (+)-/(-)-12-(+)-/(-)-15], two achiral compounds (6 and 9), and an unseparated racemate [(±)-11], together with a new natural product (7) and 21 known derivatives, were isolated from an aqueous extract of the Angelica sinensis root head (guitou). Among the chiral isolates, (+)-/(-)-13 and (+)-/(-)-15 were scalemic pairs with enantiomeric ratios of around 3:1 and 1.5:1, respectively, while others were enantiomeric equivalent pairs. This indicates that the diverse neolignans in A. sinensis are biosynthesized via different pathways with varying degrees of stereo-controlled manners.

Phytochemical Constituents, Folk Medicinal Uses, and Biological Activities of Genus Angelica: A Review

Genus Angelica is one of the widely distributed and well-known genera of family Umbelliferae. It is utilized mainly by Chinese and Korean populations especially in their folk medicine. Angelica comprises a lot of medicinally important phytoconstituents such as coumarins, furanocoumarins, flavonoids, essential oils, verbascosides, polysaccharides, etc. Members of this genus play important roles, namely antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-diabetic, skin-whitening, cytotoxic, hepatoprotective, and many others. This review draws attention to many species of genus Angelica with much focus on A. dahurica being one of the highly medicinally used species within this genus.

Recent advances in natural phthalides: Distribution, chemistry, and biological activities

Phthalides, an important class of bioactive natural products, are widely distributed in plants, fungi, lichens, and liverworts. Amon them, n-butylphthalide, a phthalide monomer, has been approved to cure ischemic stroke. Owing to their good bioactivities in anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, anti-diabetic, and other aspects, a large number of researches have been conducted on phthalides from nature materials. In recent years, hundreds of novel natural phthalides were obtained. This review provides profiles of the advances in the distribution, chemistry, and biological activities of natural phthalides in 2016-2022.

Minor monoterpene derivatives from an aqueous extract of the hook-bearing stem of Uncaria rhynchophylla

Seven new minor monoterpene derivatives (1-7), together with six known analogues, were isolated from an aqueous decoction of the hook-bearing stems of Uncaria rhynchophylla (Gou-teng). Their structures were determined by spectroscopic data analysis and electronic circular dichroism (ECD) calculations, of which 1 was confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction.