A new dihydrochalcone, two new dihydroflavanones and eight new biflavonoids
have been isolated together with cryptocaryone from the cytotoxic methanol
extract of Cryptocarya infectoria. The absolute structure of cryptocaryone
was established by X-ray analysis of its 8-bromo derivative. The structure
of the new compounds were elucidated by spectroscopic means and their abso
lute stereochemistry was deduced from chemical correlation, circular dichro
ism data and NOESY experiments. Several compounds displayed significant cyt
otoxicity and cryptocaryone was shown to possess cytotoxicity towards multi
-drug resistant K562-DOX cells. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights r
eserved.