Chemical constituents of Centaurea cuneifolia

The whole plant material fo Centaurea cuneifolia Sm. afforded three sesquit erpene lactones; cnicin (1), dehydramelitensin (2) and dehydromelitensin-8- [(2' - alpha-hydroxy-beta-hydroxyethyl)-acryloyl)] (3), the lignan; (-)-arc tigenin (4), flavonoids; salvigenin (5), eupatilin (6), jaceosidin (7), aca cetin (8), kaemferol(9), 5,7,4'-trihydroxy-3-methylether (10), 5-hydroxy-3' ,',6,7-tetramethoxyflavone (11) and 5-hydroxy-3',4',7,8-tetramet hoxyflavon e (12), a triterpene; alpha-amyrin and a sterol; beta-sitosterol. The struc tures of the isolates were determined by IR, UV, H-1 and C-13 NMR and MS sp ectroscopy.