THREE FLAVONOIDS FROM THE LEAVES OF MACARANGA LOWII

Macaranga, one of the large genera in Euphorbiaceae, is an endemic plant of Indonesia, but the phytochemistry studies had on the plants is still limited. From previous studies, Macaranga contains various secondary metabolites, including terpenoid, flavonoid, isoflavonoid and stilbene. Some of these compounds show biological properties such as anticancer and antioxidant. The aim of this research is to study the phytochemistry of Macaranga lowii and examine the cytotoxic activity of the metabolites isolated against P-388 leukemia murine cells. The isolation procedures involved maseration of the leave powders with methanol, followed by fractionation and purification using several chromatography techniques. The molecular structure of each compound was determinated based on their spectroscopic data including UV, MS, 1D and 2D NMR spectra, as well as by comparison with that of reported data. A new prenylated dihydroflavonol, dihydroicaritin, has been isolated, together with two known flavonoids, 4’-O-methyl-8-prenylnaringenin and acacetin. The evaluation of the cytotoxic properties against P-388 cells showed the IC₅₀ values of dihydroicaritin, 4’-O-methyl-8-prenylnaringenin and acacetin are 44,2 mg/ml, 59,0 mg/ml and 16,7 mg/ml, respectively.