Chemical constituents from Lindera nacusua (D. Don) Merr

•The first phytochemical investigation on the roots of Lindera nacusua led to the isolation of 9 known compounds.•Compounds 1–6 and 9 were firstly reported from the genus Lindera as well as the Lauraceae family.•Butanolides and phenolic acid amides could be considered as chemotaxonomic markers of L. nacusua.•The anthraquinones and cerebroside were first reported in the Lauraceae family.

This first phytochemical investigation on the roots of Lindera nacusua (D. Don) Merr led to the isolation of nine compounds, including demethylmacrosporine I (1), emodin-6-O-β-D-gluco- pyranoside (2), (−)-litsenolide D1 (3), (−)-(2Z,3R,4S)-2-(dodec-11-ynylidene)-3-hydroxy-4-methyilbu- tanolide (4), 1-O-3,4-dimethoxy-5-hydroxyphenyl-(6-O-3,5-dimethoxygalloyl)-β-d-glucopyranoside (5), 1-O-3,4-dimethoxy-5-hydroxyphenyl-(6-O-va-nilloyl)-β-d-glucopyranoside (6), (E)-feruloyltyra- mine (7), Z-N-feruloyltyramine (8), and 1-O-β-d-glucopyranosyl-(2S,3R,4E,8Z)-2-[2’(R)-hydroxyhex- adecanoyl-amino]-4,8-octadecadiene-1,3-diol (9). The types of the compounds involved anthraquinones (1, 2), γ-butanolides (3, 4), phenolic glycosides (5, 6), phenolic acid amides (7, 8) and cerebroside (9). Among them, Compounds 1–6 and 9 were firstly isolated from the genus Lindera as well as the Lauraceae family, and the anthraquinones and cerebrosides were first found in the Lauraceae family. The chemotaxonomic significance of these compounds was also summarized.