Diterpenoids from the Roots of Salvia yunnanensis

The genus of Salvia is a large pool of diterpenoids with structural diversity and biological properties [ 1 – 3 ]. Many diterpenoids with interesting bioactivities, such as tanshinone IIA, salvicine, neotanshinlactone, and salvinorin A, have been reported from this genus [ 4 – 6 ]. Salvia yunnanensis is a traditional Chinese herb used as the surrogate of S. miltiorrhiza (Danshen) for the treatment of various cardiovascular diseases [ 7 ]. Many bioactive abietane diterpenoids, especially a series of abietane type diterpene alkaloids, have been reported from this plant [ 8 – 10 ]. In a continuation of our research work on the diterpenoids from Salvia species, we examined the constituents of S. yunnanensis collected in Juhuacun traditional medicine market in the Yunnan province. As a result, two new diterpenoids, salyunnanins I and J ( 1 and 2 ), together with ten known analogues ( 3 – 12 ), were isolated (Fig. 1 ). It’s noteworthy that the structures of the new isolates were elucidated to possess neo -clerodane and seco -abietane diterpenoid skeletons respectively. All of the compounds were tested for the inhibitory activities against six human tumor lines in vitro, and several ones showed moderate cytotoxic activities. Herein, we report the isolation, structural elucidation, and the biological evaluation of all the obtained isolates.