Studies on the chemical constituents of the roots of Goniothalamus cheliensis Hu

Goniothalamus cheliensis Hu is a kind of plant of the genus Goniothalamus ( Annonaceae) distributing in Yunnan province, southwest of China. In order to seek for the new type of antitumour agent from the genus, we discovered that the EtOH extract of the roots of the titled plant showed strong cytoto xic activities against a number of human cancer cell lines in preliminary p harmacological screening. Bioassay - guided fractionation of the alcoholic extract resulted in the isolation of thirty - eight compounds, among them t wo compounds were identified as new structures by the spectral data and che mical evidence, which were named as gonioquinone and goniofufurone acetonid e respectively.