Two new aromatic derivatives from Codonopsis pilosula and their α-glucosidase inhibitory activities

Ru-Yue Wanga, Pan-Jie Sua, Bing Lia, Xiao-Qing Zhana, Feng-Ming Qib, Chun-Wei Lva, Fang-Di Hua, Kun Gaob, Zhan-Xin Zhanga* & Dong-Qing Feia*a School of Pharmacy, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, People’s Republic of Chinab State Key Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, People’s Republic of ChinaSupplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14786419.2021.1912749.CONTACT Zhan-Xin Zhang zhangzhx@lzu.edu.cn; Dong-Qing Fei feidq@lzu.edu.cnAbstractThe ethanol extract of the roots of Codonopsis pilosula was subjected to chromatographic fractionation, which result in the isolation and characterization of two new aromatic derivatives 2,3-dihydroxypropyl 2,4-dihydroxy-3,6-dimethylbenzoate (1) and 2-oxopropyl 3-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzoate (2), along with three known compounds pilosulinene A (3), pollenfuran B (4) and (+)-pinoresinol (5). Their structures were demonstrated by HRESIMS and spectroscopic methods including NMR and IR. It is worth noting that compound 4 was isolated for the first time from the genus Codonopsis. The potential hypoglycemic properties of compounds 2–5 were evaluated by measuring their α-glucosidase inhibitory effects. As a result, compounds 2 and 3 showed weak α-glucosidase inhibitory activities with IC50 values of 154.8 ± 11.0 μM and 24.0 ± 2.2 μM, respectively.