Cytotoxic and anti-inflammatory activities of phenanthrenes from the medullae of Juncus effusus L

Bioactivity guided phytochemical investigation of the ethanol extract of the medullae of Juncus effusus resulted in the isolation of two new phenanthrenes, 8-hydroxymethyl-2-hydroxyl-1-methyl-5-vinyl-9,10-dihydrophenanthrene (1), and 5-(1-methoxyethyl)-1-methyl-phenanthren-2,7-diol (2) together with 15 known phenanthrenoids (3-17). The chemical structures of 1 and 2 were established by a combination of spectroscopic techniques. Compounds 1-15 and 17 were evaluated for their cytotoxic activities against five human Cancer cell lines (SHSY-5Y, SMMC-7721, HepG-2, Hela and MCF-7) by CCK-8 assay, and their anti-inflammatory activities were also evaluated by inhibition on NO production in LPS-activated murine macrophage RAW 264.7 cells.