To investigate the chemical constituents of Clematis aethusifolia,a traditional Mongolian medicine for resolving hard lump.

Bioactive guided isolation and purification of Clematis aethusifolia was performed by normal and reverse phase column chromatography, Sephadex LH-20 and preparation HPLC. The structures were identified by 1D,2D-NMR and MS spectral analysis and comparison with literature data. Cytotoxicity of compounds were determined by CCK-8 cell staining method for detecting growth inhibition to five kinds of human solid tumor cell lines.

Eight compounds were isolated and identified as vanillicacid( 1),protocatechuic acid( 2),( +)-pinoresinol diglucoside( 3),( +)-pinoresinol-4’-O-β-D-glucopyranoside( 4),( +)-syringaresinol-4’-O-β-Dglucopyranoside( 5),7,9,9’-trihydroxy-3,3’-dimethoxy-8-O-4’-neolignan-4-O-β-D-glucopyranoside( 6),butyl-β-D-fructopyranoside( 7),butyl-β-D-fructofuranoside( 8). Compounds 2,8 showed strong cytotoxic activity.

All the compounds are isolated from this plant for the first time, Results: Eight compounds were isolated and identified as vanillicacid( 1), protocatechuic acid( 2),( +)-pinoresinol diglucoside( 3),( +)-pinoresinol-4’-O-β-D-glucopyranoside( 4),( +)-syringaresinol-4’-O-β-Dglucopyranoside( 5),7,9,9’-trihydroxy-3,3’-dimethoxy-8-O-4’-neolignan-4-O-β-D-glucopyranoside( 6),butyl-β-D-fructopyranoside( 7),butyl-β-D-fructofuranoside( 8). Compounds 2,8 showed strong cytotoxic activity. compounds 3,6 ~ 8 are isolated from Clematis genus for the first time, compounds 6 and 8 are isolated from Ranunculaceae family for the first time. Compounds 2,8 may be the effective components in Clematis aethusifolia.