Chemical investigation of Penthorum chinense resulted in the isolation of two neolignans (1 and 2) together with two known compounds (3 and 4). The structures of compounds 1 and 2 were determined by interpretation of spectroscopic data, and absolute configurations were made based on electronic circular dichroism (ECD). All compounds were evaluated for their antiproliferative activity on hepatic stellate T6 cells (HSC-T6 cells), and 1 and 2 showed moderate activity with IC50 values of 15.3 and 10.1 μM, respectively.
Keywords: ECD experiment; Penthorum Chinense; neolignans.