Cephalotaxus alkaloids from Torreya fargesii Franch and their cytotoxicities

Abstract Two new cephalotaxus alkaloids, torreyafargesines A (1) and B (2), along with sixteen known ones (3‒18), were isolated from the leaves and barks of Torreya fargesii Franch. The structures were established on the basis of spectroscopic methods. All compounds were evaluated for their cytotoxicities against human A549 and Hela cell lines. As a result, compound 5 exhibited weak cytotoxicities against both two cell lines, while compounds 2‒4 exhibited cytotoxicities to the Hela cell line referring to that of cisplatin.