Markhasphingolipid A, new phytosphingolipid from the leaves of Markhamia stipulata var. canaense V.S. Dang

From the leaves of Markhamia stipulata var. canaense V.S. Dang, one new phytosphingolipid, named markhasphingolipid A (6) together with five known compounds, 4’,7-O-dimethylapigenin (1), narigenin (2), tectoquinone (3), mollic acid (4), 1-hexadecanoyl-sn-glycerol (5) were classified by various chromatographic methods. Their structures were designated by IR, UV, HR-ESI-MS, HR-ESI-MS/MS and NMR experiments. All compounds were recognized for the first time from this species. The cytotoxicity of all n-hexane fractions and isolated compounds (5 & 6) against three human cancer cell lines (HeLa, HepG2, and MCF-7) were evaluated by SRB assay. All n-hexane fractions expressed cytotoxic effect on three tested cancer cell lines (at the concentration of 100 μg/mL, percent of cytotoxicity ranged from 55.81% to 95.83%) as well as compound 5 (IC₅₀ ranged from 48.51 to 63.30 μM) whereas fraction H.I and compound 6 did not show activity.