Cytotoxic Acetogenins from the Roots of Annona purpurea.

Annona purpurea, known in Mexico as "cabeza de negro" or "ilama", belongs to the Annonaceae family. Its roots are employed in folk medicine in several regions of Mexico. Taking that information into account, a chemical and biological analysis of the components present in the roots of this species was proposed. Our results demonstrated that the dichloromethane (DCM) extract was exclusively constituted by a mixture of five new acetogenins named annopurpuricins A-E (1-5). These compounds have an aliphatic chain of 37 carbons with a terminal α,ß unsaturated γ-lactone. Compounds 1 and 2 belong to the adjacent bis-THF (tetrahydrofuran) α-monohydroxylated type, while compounds 3 and 4 belong to the adjacent bis-THF α,α'-dihydroxylated type; only compound 5 possesses a bis-epoxide system. Complete structure analysis was carried out by spectroscopy and chemical methods. All compounds were evaluated for their antiproliferative activity on three human tumor cell lines (MSTO-211H, HeLa and HepG2). Compounds 1-4 inhibited significantly the growth of HeLa and HepG2 cells, showing GI50 values in the low/subnanomolar range, while 5 was completely ineffective under the tested conditions. The investigation of the mechanism of action responsible for cytotoxicity revealed for the most interesting compound 1 the ability to block the complex I activity on isolated rat liver mitochondria (RLM).

Synthesis and in vitro antioxidant activity evaluation of 3-carboxycoumarin derivatives and QSAR study of their DPPH• radical scavenging activity.

The in vitro antioxidant activities of eight 3-carboxycoumarin derivatives were assayed by the quantitative 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazil (DPPH•) radical scavenging activity method. 3-Acetyl-6-hydroxy-2H-1-benzopyran-2-one (C1) and ethyl 6-hydroxy-2-oxo-2H-1-benzopyran-3-carboxylate (C2) presented the best radical-scavenging activity. A quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) study was performed and correlated with the experimental DPPH• scavenging data. We used structural, geometrical, topological and quantum-chemical descriptors selected with Genetic Algorithms in order to determine which of these parameters are responsible of the observed DPPH• radical scavenging activity. We constructed a back propagation neural network with the hydrophilic factor (Hy) descriptor to generate an adequate architecture of neurons for the system description. The mathematical model showed a multiple determination coefficient of 0.9196 and a root mean squared error of 0.0851. Our results shows that the presence of hydroxyl groups on the ring structure of 3-carboxy-coumarins are correlated with the observed DPPH• radical scavenging activity effects.

3-(Piperidin-1-ium-1-yl)-6-azoniaspiro-[5.5]undecane dibromide monohydrate.

The title compound, C(15)H(30)N(2) (2+)·2Br(-)·H(2)O, was synthesized by reaction of 4-piperidino-piperidine with dibromo-pentane. The dication is built up from three linked piperidine rings, two of which have one quaternary N atom in common (azoniaspiro), whereas the third is N-C bonded to the azoniaspiro system and protonated on the N atom (piperidinium). All three piperidine rings adopt chair conformations. The crystal structure features O-H⋯Br and N-H⋯Br hydrogen bonds.

Antioxidant activity of butyl- and phenylstannoxanes derived from 2-, 3- and 4-pyridinecarboxylic acids.

In vitro antioxidant activity for 12 stannoxanes derived from Ph(3)SnCl (compounds 1-3), Ph(2)SnCl(2) (compounds 4-6), Bu(3)SnCl (compounds 7-9), and Bu(2)SnCl(2) (compounds 10-12), was assayed qualitatively by the chromatographic profile with 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazil (DPPH) method and by two quantitative methods: the DPPH radical scavenging activity and Ferric-Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP) assays. The results were compared with those obtained with the starting materials 2-pyridine- carboxylic acid (I), 3-pyridinecarboxylic acid (II) and 4-pyridinecarboxylic acid (III), as well as with standard compounds, such as vitamin C and vitamin E, respectively. The in vitro antiradical activity with DPPH of diphenyltin derivative 5 showed a very similar behavior to vitamin C at a 20 microg/mL concentration, whereas according to the FRAP method, compound 8 was better. This difference is due to the mechanism of the antioxidant process. The Structure-Activity Relationships (SAR) for both methods is also reported.