Antiproliferative activity of the Antrodia camphorata secondary metabolite 4,7-dimethoxy-5-methylbenzo[d][1,3]dioxole and analogues.

Both the traditional Chinese medicinal fungus, Antrodia camphorata, and its secondary metabolite, 4,7-dimethoxy-5-methylbenzo[d][1,3]dioxole, have been reported to possess promising anticancer activity. In this work the natural product and analogues bearing more polar substituents were synthesised and assessed for antiproliferative activity in the NCI-60 screen. Although each compound inhibited the growth of some cell lines at 10μM, none had sufficient activity to warrant further investigation.