Isolation, structure, and biological activities of long-chain catechols of Plectranthus sylvestris (Labiatae)

Antioxidant activity guided fractionation of extracts of the aerial parts of the title plant and HPLC separation yielded a series of oxygenated long-chain alkylcatechols. Their structures were inferred by spectroscopic methods and chemical transformations to be the novel 4-[(2S,4R,6S)-4-acetyloxy)tetrahydro-6-pentyl-2H-pyran-2-yl]benzene-1,2-diol (1a), 4-[(2S,4R,6S)-tetrahydro-4-hydroxy-6-pentyl-2H-pyran-2-yl]benzene-1,2-diol (1b), 4-[(3S,5S)-5-(acetyloxy)-3-hydroxydecyl]benzene-1,2-diol (2a), 4-[(3S,5S)-3-(acetyloxy)-5-hydroxydecyl]benzene-1,2-diol (2b), (3S,13Z)-1-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-3-hydroxydocos-13-en-5-one (3a), (Z)-1-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)docos-13-en-5-one (4), besides the known 1-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)icosan-5-one (5). The absolute configurations of the optically active compounds which are structurally related to the [n]-gingerols (6) and -diols (7) were established by the high-field H-1-NMR application of Mosher's method. All compounds are in vitro potent antioxidants, inhibiting the Fe2+-catalysed autooxidation of linoleic acid in the same order of magnitude as the commercial antioxidant 2,6-di(tert-butyl)-4-methylphenol (BHT). The dose-dependent inhibitory effects on soybean-lipoxygenase are in the mu mol range, that of the most effective compound (3a) in the nmol range, hence being significantly more potent than the known anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs indomethacin and nordihydroguaiaretic acid.