Anti-inflammatory steroids from the fruits of Artocarpus heterophyllus.

A phytochemical study on the fruits of Artocarpus heterophyllus caused the isolation of a previously undescribed steroid, artoheterophoid (1), together with seven known analogues (2 − 8). The chemical structure of 1 was elucidated on the basis of comprehensive spectroscopic methods and the known compounds (2 − 8) were identified by comparing their spectroscopic data with those reported in the literatures. All known compounds (2–8) were separated from A. heterophyllus for the first time. All isolated compounds (1–8) were assessed for their anti-inflammatory activities in vitro by measuring the inhibitory effect against nitric oxide (NO) production induced by lipopolysaccharide in mouse macrophage RAW 264.7 cells. Compounds 1–8 displayed remarkable inhibitory effects against NO production with the IC₅₀ values in the range of 0.72 ± 0.07 to 5.93 ± 0.12 μM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]