Antiproliferative evaluation of terpenoids and terpenoid coumarins from Ferulago macrocarpa (Fenzl) Boiss. fruits

BACKGROUND: Ferulago macrocarpa is a plant used as flavoring agent and protectant in the food industry and as a folk medicinal plant in Iran with no available information on its chemical identity. Ferulago spp. showed to contain biologically terpenoids and coumarins. OBJECTIVE: The objective was to isolate and characterize terpenoids and coumarins from the acetone extract of F. macrocarpa fruits and to evaluate their antiproliferative effects on several cell lines. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A series of normal and reverse phase gravity and high-performance liquid chromatography analyses were used to purify constituents. Compounds 1–5 and 7 were evaluated for their cytotoxic effects on MCF-7, HT-29 and H-1299 cell lines. RESULTS: Six compounds including bornyl acetate (1), 1,10-di-epi-cubenol (2), stigmasterol (3) and three coumarins grandivittin (4), prantschimgin (5) and 4”-hydroxygrandivittin (7) along with mixtures of feruloyl derivatives (6a-6c) have been purified. Their structures were established by spectroscopic methods including nuclear magnetic resonance and MS analyses. Compound 2 showed moderate cytotoxicity effect with IC(50) values of 5.0 and 6.7 mM on MCF-7 and HT-29, respectively. CONCLUSION: 1,10-di-epi-Cubenol could be considered as a potential proliferation inhibitor of MCF-7 and HT-29 cell lines.