Sweritranslactone D, a hepatoprotective novel secoiridoid dimer with tetracyclic lactone skeleton from heat-transformed swertiamarin

• Published in: Fitoterapia 2021-06, Vol.151, p.104879, Article 104879
• Main Authors: Zou, Ya-Dan, Ma, Xiao-Xia, Du, Sheng-Nan, Qi, Ping-Xing, He, Fang-Yan, Yang, Zhu-Ya, Tan, Wen-Hong, Khan, Afsar, Zhou, Zhi-Hong, Liu, Lu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Dimers; Hepatitis; Hepatoprotective; N-Acetyl-L-cysteine; Secoiridoid dimer; Sweritranslactone D; Swertiamarin
• ISSN: 0367-326X; 1873-6971
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fitote.2021.104879

Swertia mileensis, known as Qing-Ye-Dan (QYD), has been documented in Chinese Pharmacopoeia to cure hepatitis. Interestingly, its announced main active component, swertiamarin, could not be detected in the decoction, which indicated that the efficacy of QYD might be attributed to heat-transformed products of swertiamarin (HTPS). Further investigation on HTPS led to the isolation of sweritranslactone D (1), a novel secoiridoid dimer possessing a tetracyclic lactone skeleton, with better hepatoprotective activity than N-acetyl-L-cysteine in vitro. [Display omitted] •The process of Traditional Chinese Medicine transforms the structures of compounds.•An effective method is provided to obtain novel compounds from natural products.•A novel tetracyclic lactone secoiridoid dimer was isolated from Swertia mileensis.•The putative transformation pathways of the isolates from swertiamarin are proposed.•The compound showed a potent in vitro activity in an induced L-O2 cell model.