A cytotoxic butenolide, two new dolabellane diterpenoids, a chroman and a benzoquinol derivative formosan Casearia membranacea.

Investigation of a cytotoxic chloroform-soluble fraction of the stem of Casearia membranacea (Flacourtiaceae) led to the isolation of five new compounds, including one butenolide, casealactone (1), one chroman, caseamemin (2), two dolabellane diterpenoids, casearimene A (3) and casearimene B (4), one benzoquinol ether, casearinone (5), together with fifteen known compounds, including two amides, N- trans-feruloyltyramine (6) and N- cis-feruloyltyramine (7), six steroids, beta-sitosterol (8), stigmast-5-ene-3beta,7alpha-diol (9), stigmast-5-ene-3beta,7beta-diol (10), stigmastane-3beta,5alpha,6beta-triol (11), beta-sitostenone (12), beta-sitosterol 3- O-beta-glucoside (13), two triterpenoids, squalene (14) and friedelin (15), one lignan, (+/-)-syringaresinol (16), two benzenoids, syringaldehyde (17) and vanillic acid (18), one ester, methyl hexadecanoate (19), and anthraquinone (20), respectively. Among these isolates, 1 showed cytotoxicity against P-388 and HT-29 cancer cell lines in vitro, and 6 and 7 showed cytotoxicity against the P-388 cancer cell line. The structures of these compounds were determined by means of spectroscopic techniques, and the structure of 3 was confirmed by X-ray crystallographic analysis.