Lycodine type alkaloids from Lycopodiastrum casuarinoides with cytotoxic and cholinesterase inhibitory activities.

A chemical investigation on the 70% EtOH extract of the aerial parts of Lycopodiastrum casuarinoides led to the isolation of six novel lycodine type alkaloids, lycocasuarines A-F (1-6). The structures of the isolated compounds were established based on 1D and 2D (1H1H COSY, HMQC, and HMBC) NMR spectroscopy, in addition to high resolution mass spectrometry. The isolated alkaloids were tested in vitro for cytotoxic potentials against seven malignant melanoma cell lines as well as acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrocholinesterase (BuChE) inhibitory activities. As a result, alkaloids 1 and 3 exhibited significant cytotoxic activities against all the tested tumor cell lines with IC50 values <10 μM and the inhibitory activities for AchE (0.94 ± 0.15 and 0.24 ± 0.03 μM, respectively) and BuchE (1.82 ± 0.12 and 7.31 ± 0.42 μM, respectively).