PHYTOCHEMICALS AND BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITY OF THE LIVERWORT PORELLA OBTUSATA COLLECTED IN SA PA, VIET NAM

Abstract

The ethanol extract of Porella obtusata collected in Sa Pa, Vietnam exhibited cytotoxicity
against four cancer cell lines KB (epidermoid carcinoma cell lines), Hep-G2 (liver cancer cell lines),
A549 (lung cancer cell lines) and MCF7 (breast cancer cell lines) with the IC50 values of 14.04 ±
1.04, 3.51 ± 0.21, 8.85 ± 0.02, 13.30 ± 0.61µg/ml, respectively. Five compounds including
pinguisenol (1), ent-11β-hydroxykauren-15-one (2), ent-11β-hydroxy-16R-kauran-15-one (3),
kauren-18-oic acid (4) and β-sitosterol (5) were isolated from this extract. Their structures were
determined by modern spectroscopy methods such as MS and NMR (1D and 2D) as well as by
comparison with the published data. This is the first time the chemical constituents and biological
activity of Porella obtusata have been studied in Vietnam.