Two New Chemical Constituents from the Rhizome of Sparganium stoloniferum

glutaric acid (HMG), Cytotoxicity Sparganium (Bur-reed) is a genus of flowering plants, which contains about 20 species in temperate regions of both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Three Sparganium species, S. stoloniferum, S. angustifolium, and S. japonicum, grow in Korea. S. stoloniferum is widely distributed in the wet valley areas, and has been used as an emmenagogue, a galactogogue, and an antispasmodic agent in Chinese folk medicine,1,2 and also for the treatment of menstrual disorders and chronic hepatitis.3 Previous phytochemical investigations on this plant reported the isolation of pyrrole carboxylic acid ester,4 phenylpropanoid glycosides,5-7 and two sucrose esters.8 Aldose reductase inhibition,9 anti-inflammatory, and anti-thrombotic10 activities of an EtOH extract have also been reported. In our continuing study on the constituents of Korean medicinal plant sources, we have identified mole-cules from the rhizome of S. stoloniferum. Column chromato-grapic purification of the MeOH extract of the rhizome of this source led to isolation of two new constituents (1-2), together with three known compounds (3-5). The structures of the new compounds (1-2) were determined through spectral analysis, and chemical means. The isolated compounds (1-5) were tested for cytotoxicity against four human tumor cells in vitro using a sulforhodamin B (SRB) bioassay. Compound 1 was isolated as a colorless gum, +4.0° (c 0.2, MeOH). The molecular formula C11H13NO6 was determined by the HR-FAB MS m/z 255.0743 [M]+ (calcd. 255.0743). Compound 1 displayed three proton signals at δ