A New Prenylated Isoflavone from the Stems of Harrisonia perforata

A new prenylated isoflavone, harriperforine (1), as well as seven known analogues, was isolated and characterized from the stems of Harrisonia perforata. Their chemical structures were unambiguously elucidated based on spectroscopic analyses. All known compounds 2 similar to 8 were isolated from the genus Harrisonia for the first time. The growth inhibitory activities against five cancer cell lines (HL-60, A549, SMMC-7721, MCF-7 and SW480) of compounds 1 similar to 8 were evaluated. As a result, compounds 1 similar to 8 displayed remarkable inhibitory activities with IC50 values ranging from (0.38 +/- 0.03) mu mol/L to (31.68 +/- 0.21) mu mol/L, which were comparable to those of cisplatin.