Planta Med 2015; 81 - PX41
DOI: 10.1055/s-0035-1556485

Digging deep for new compounds from Silphium laciniatum

RB Williams 1, VL Norman 1, M O'Neil-Johnson 1, S Woodbury 2, GR Eldridge 1, CM Starks 1
  • 1Lead Discovery and Rapid Structure Elucidation Group, Sequoia Sciences, Inc., 1912 Innerbelt Business Center Drive, St. Louis, MO 63114, USA
  • 2Whitmire Wildflower Garden, Shaw Nature Reserve, Missouri Botanical Garden, P.O. Box 38, Gray Summit, MO 63039, USA

The compass plant, Silphium laciniatum, is an iconic perennial plant of the North American tallgrass prairie. The plants of the tallgrass prairie have historically been subjected to a number of biological and environmental stresses. Among the adaptations developed by S. laciniatum is a large deep taproot. This study of the chemical constituents of the root of S. laciniatum was undertaken in two phases. The first was an examination of the variation in constituents based on depth of the root material. The second was the isolation of compounds with activity against the NCI-H460 human large-cell lung carcinoma cell line. This investigation has led to the identification of fifteen new terpenoids and two new semisynthetic terpenoids.