Pentacyclic Triterpenoids Isolated from Celastraceae: A Focus in the 13C-NMR Data

The Celastraceae family comprises about 96 genera and more than 1.350 species, occurring mainly in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. The species of this family stand out as important plant sources of triterpenes, both in terms of abundance and structural diversity. Triterpenoids found in Celastraceae species display mainly lupane, ursane, oleanane, and friedelane skeletons, exhibiting a wide range of biological activities such as antiviral, antimicrobial, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and cytotoxic against various tumor cell lines. This review aimed to document all triterpenes isolated from different botanical parts of species of the Celastraceae family covering 2001 to 2021. Furthermore, a compilation of their ¹³C-NMR data was carried out to help characterize compounds in future investigations. A total of 504 pentacyclic triterpenes were compiled and distinguished as 29 aromatic, 50 dimers, 103 friedelanes, 89 lupanes, 102 oleananes, 22 quinonemethides, 88 ursanes and 21 classified as others.

Three New Bibenzyls from the Twigs of Smilax longifolia

Three new bibenzyl compounds, 1-3, were isolated along with the previously known bibenzyls 4-6, one diarylpropanoid 7, and three diarylheptanoids 8-10 from the twigs of Smilax longifolia. The structures of the new compounds were elucidated by analyzing their spectroscopic data and comparing them with those of known compounds. Diarylheptanoid 9 exhibited potent lethality in the brine shrimp lethality test (BST).

Pentacyclic Triterpenoids from Maytenus cuzcoina

Phytochemical analysis of the root bark extract of Maytenus cuzcoina (Celastraceae) led to the isolation and characterization of sixteen triterpenoids with a 6/6/6/6/6 pentacyclic system, including the new 22α-hydroxy-29-methoxy-3β-tetradecanoate-olean-12-ene, and 3β,24β-epoxy-29-methoxy-2α,3α,6α-trihydroxy- D:A-friedelane that is reported for the first time as a natural product. This is the first instance of the isolation of a tetradecanoate triterpene ester from a Celastraceae species. The structures were elucidated on the basis of spectrometric and spectroscopic methods, including 1D and 2D NMR techniques.