Anti-inflammatory steroids from the fruits of Artocarpus heterophyllus.

A phytochemical study on the fruits of Artocarpus heterophyllus caused the isolation of a previously undescribed steroid, artoheterophoid (1), together with seven known analogues (2 - 8). The chemical structure of 1 was elucidated on the basis of comprehensive spectroscopic methods and the known compounds (2 - 8) were identified by comparing their spectroscopic data with those reported in the literatures. All known compounds (2-8) were separated from A. heterophyllus for the first time. All isolated compounds (1-8) were assessed for their anti-inflammatory activities in vitro by measuring the inhibitory effect against nitric oxide (NO) production induced by lipopolysaccharide in mouse macrophage RAW 264.7 cells. Compounds 1-8 displayed remarkable inhibitory effects against NO production with the IC₅₀ values in the range of 0.72 ± 0.07 to 5.93 ± 0.12 μM.