Essential Oils from Bolivia. XV. Herzogole, an Original Monoterpene Benzodioxole from an Essential Oil from (Cabrera) Cuatrec.

Over 15 years, with the support of a Canadian funding agency, the Universidad Mayor de San Simón, in Bolivia, undertook a large survey of aromatic plants of the South American country. More than a hundred species were studied under various aspects, including the production and characterization of essential oils. As part of this survey, the chemical composition of an essential oil sample obtained from (Asteraceae) growing wild in the High Valley region of the department of Cochabamba was determined by a combination of GC and GC-MS measurements.

Cytotoxic Sesquiterpene Lactones from Kauna lasiophthalma Griseb.

Two new eudesmane derivatives (3 and 8) were isolated from the ethanol extract of the aerial parts of Kaunia lasiophthalma Griseb, together with 14 known eudesmane, germacrane, and guaiane sesquiterpenes, and four flavones. The structures and relative configurations of all the compounds were established by NMR spectroscopy and high-resolution mass spectrometry. The anticancer activity of sesquiterpenes 1, 3, 6-9, 11, 12, 14, and 16 was evaluated in vitro with the breast cancer cell lines HCC1937, JIMT-1, L56Br-C1, MCF-7, and SK-BR-3, and compared with the cytotoxicity in the non-cancerous breast epithelial cell line MCF-10A.