Two new anticancer phenolic derivatives from leaves of Piper betle Linn.

In this study, phytochemical analyses of the chloroform extract of Piper betle L. var. haldia and maghai, Piperaceae, leaves led to the isolation of two new phenolic derivatives: 1-n-decanoyl hydroxy-benzoic acid/1-n-decanoyl phenol (H2) and 3-butylphenol (M1) on the basis of spectroscopic data 1D NMR (¹H, ¹³C) and 2D NMR (¹H - ¹H COSY, HMBC) as well as ESI-MS, FT-IR and HR-ESI-MS analyses. Compounds H2 and M1 showed excellent antioxidant DPPH free radical scavenging activity with IC₅₀ values of 10.66 μ/mL and 13.65 μg/mL compared to ascorbic acid as a standard antioxidant with an IC₅₀ value of 2.52 μg/mL. Evaluation of cytotoxic activity against two human oral cancer cell lines (SCC-40 and SCC-29B) showed significant effect with GI₅₀ values of 24.08 and 33.08 μg/mL for compound H2 and 35.03 and 47.06 μg/mL for compound M1, compared to Doxorubicin® as a standard cytotoxic drug with GI₅₀ value of < 10 μg/mL.