Abstract:To understand the chemical constituents of Chinese agarwood "Qi-Nan", seven compounds were isolated by various column chromatographic methods. On the basis of spectral data, they were identified as cis-7-hydroxycalamenene (1), (5R,6R,7S,8R)-2-(phenylethyl)-6,7,8-trihydroxy-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-5-[2-(2-phenylethyl) chromonyl-6-oxy]chromone (2), 1-hydroxy-1,5-diphenylpentan-3-one (3), syringaresinol-glycoside (4), (3β)- olean-12-ene-3,23-diol (5), β-sitosterol (6) and hexadecanoic acid, 2,3-dihydroxypropyl ester (7). Compounds 1, 3-5, and 7 were isolated from agarwood for the first time, and compound 1 showed a very sweet aromatic odor. Compound 1 showed acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitory activity with the inhibition rate of (49.9±1.4)% at the concentration of 50 μmol L-1.
