Three new compounds, ferruginenes A (1) and B (2) and a mixture of C-50(R) and C-50(S) ferruginene C (3) diastereomers, have been isolated from a cytotoxic chloroformsoluble fraction of the leaves of Rhododendron ferrugineum together with 12 known compounds. The structures of these new compounds were elucidated by analyses of NMR spectroscopic and mass spectrometric data. Compounds 1_3 were tested for their cytotoxicity against three human cancer cell lines,namely, HL-60, HeLa-S3, and MCF-7.
cytotoxic chloroform soluble
diastereomer