Lignans from Gnetum montanum Markgr. f. megalocarpua

The plants of Gnetum (Gnetatae, member of Gnetales) are a special group of gymnospermous plants that share several angiospermous morphological features [1, 2]. Worldwide, there are more than 30 species, among which nine species are distributed in China. The Gentales and angiosperms are regarded as closely related. Whether this view is justified from the secondary metabolites of the plants, we decided to investigate the chemical components of the plants of Gnetum genus. In this paper, we present the isolation and structure elucidation of nine lignans (1–9) from the ethanol extracts of lignans from Gnetum montanum Markgr. f. megalocarpua Markgr. They are threo-3,3′-dimethoxy-4,8′-oxyneolignan-9,4′,7′,9′-tetraol-7(8)ene (1) [3], longifloroside B (2) [4], (+)-lariciresinol (3) [5], (+)-lariciresinol-9-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (4) [5], (–)isolariciresinol-9-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (5) [6], (–)isolariciresinol (6) [6], medioresinol (7) [7], syringaresinol (8) [7], and pinoresinol (9) [7]. All the compounds were isolated from this plant for the first time.