Cytotoxic compounds from invasive giant salvinia (Salvinia molesta) against human tumor cells

Bioactivity-guided fractionation of ethanol extract of giant salvinia led to the isolation of 50 compounds including 6 new compounds. The new compound salviniol (1) is a rare abietane diterpene with a new ferruginol-menthol coupled skeleton and both salviniside I (2) and salviniside II (3) are novel benzofuran glucose conjugates with unique 10-membered macrodiolide structure through acylation at C-4 and C-6 of glucopyranosyl. Cytotoxicity of 50 compounds against a panel of six human tumor cell lines was examined in vitro.