Nauclea officinalis (Pierre ex Pitard Merr. et Chun), also known as ebony, mountain bear gall, bear gall wood, etc., is a plant of the Rubiaceae family in the Nauclea L. genus. It is mainly produced in Hainan and sporadically distributed in Guangdong, Guangxi and other places. It is the only native ebony plant in China. Danmu is a characteristic Li medicine in Hainan Province, and is one of the key traditional Li medicinal plants studied in Hainan Province. It has a bitter taste and a cold nature, and has the effects of clearing heat, detoxifying, reducing swelling, and relieving pain. The Li people widely use it for colds and external antibacterial disinfection. Nowadays, it is commonly used in clinical practice for the treatment of diseases such as cold and fever, acute tonsillitis, pharyngitis, bronchitis, and pneumonia. Its main components are alkaloids, phenolic acids, pentacyclic triterpenoids, and flavonoids. Modern pharmacological experiments have shown that Gallbladder wood has anti-inflammatory, anti cell proliferation, and inhibitory effects on gastric acid secretion. At present, research on Gallbladder wood mainly focuses on the alkaloid part, while less attention is paid to its non alkaloid part, especially the high content of polar compounds (n-butanol extracts) and their biological activities in clinical Gallbladder wood preparations. This study isolated and identified compounds from the n-butanol extract of Gallbladder, mainly phenolic acid compounds. Previous reports have shown that these compounds have good anti-tumor and hypoglycemic effects. Therefore, in order to further investigate the chemical composition and activity of n-butanol extract from the xylem of medicinal parts of Gallbladder, the chemical composition was isolated and structurally identified, and the α – glucosidase inhibitory activity and cytotoxic activity were studied. The aim is to provide scientific basis for the development, utilization, and discovery of new uses of this plant.

 

The medicinal part of Gallbladder wood is the xylem, and in the pharmaceutical process, water extraction is mainly used to prepare Gallbladder wood extract as the medicinal part. Previous studies have shown that the main component of Gallbladder wood is alkaloids, but there is relatively little research on other types of compounds. Therefore, the highly polar non alkaloid components are also worth further study. In this study, 15 compounds were isolated by crushing the xylem of Gallbladder wood. Compounds 1-4 and 9-14 were phenolic compounds, compounds 5-6 were cyclic ether terpenes, compound 7 was a lignin compound, compound 8 was a sesquiterpene compound, and compound 15 was a phenylpropanoid compound. Compound 1 is a new compound, and compounds 1-4 and 6-8 were isolated from this genus of plants for the first time. The in vitro activity screening results showed that compounds 3, 7, 8, 13, and 14 exhibited weak alpha glucosidase inhibitory activity, and all compounds had no cytotoxic activity. The results of this study were the first to investigate the α – glucosidase inhibition and cytotoxic activity of large polar non alkaloid chemical components in Gallbladder wood, enriching the diversity of chemical components in Gallbladder wood. It was found that they exhibited weak α – glucosidase inhibition activity, providing reference for the development and utilization of Gallbladder wood, a characteristic Li medicine in Hainan, and expanding its new applications.