Structural Investigation and Biological Activity of Sesquiterpene Lactones from the Traditional Chinese Herb Inula racemosa

Five new sesquiterpene lactones, racemosalactones A–E (1–5), along with 19 known sesquiterpene latones (6–24), were isolated from the roots of Inula racemosa. Their structures were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analysis, and the absolute configuration of 2 was deduced from X-ray diffraction analysis. Compounds 1, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 17 exhibited antiproliferative activities with IC50 values ranging from 0.38 to 4.19 μg/mL against human non-small-cell lung cancer A549, hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2, and human fibrosarcoma HT1080 cells. Compounds 6 and 8 exhibited antiproliferative activities against endothelial cells with IC50 values of 2.4 and 2.5 μg/mL, respectively. Furthermore, compounds 6 and 8 both inhibited endothelial cell tube formation at 1.0 μg/mL. A method for the rapid and straightforward preparative-scale isolation of compound 6 from alantolides is described.