Six new triterpenoids with anti-inflammatory activity from Gypsophila oldhamiana

The roots of Gypsophila oldhamiana Miq. (Caryophyllaceae) have been used as a traditional Chinese medicine to treat fever, consumptive disease, infantile malnutrition and so on. A further investigation on the finding of active constituents led to the isolation and identification of six previously undescribed triterpenoids, together with six known compounds. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic methods and single-crystal diffraction analyses. Cultured macrophage RAW 264.7 cells were used for the anti-inflammatory experiments and the preliminary bioassay test suggested that all twelve compounds showed anti-inflammatory activity. Their possible structure-activity relationships were preliminarily summarized.