New Chlorine‐containing Sesquiterpenoid from Artemisia blepharolepis

One new chlorinated sesquiterpene (compound 1, ablepharolide) and twenty‐one known compounds were obtained from the aerial parts of Artemisia blepharolepis. Their structures were established by spectroscopic methods and the absolute configuration was further determined by single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction analysis for ablepharolide. Ablepharolide is a rare sesquiterpenoid with a 4‐methyl‐7‐isopropyl‐9‐ethyl‐perhydroindene skeleton that incorporates a chlorine atom. It significantly inhibited the growth of MCF‐7 cells with IC50 value of 8.34±0.77 μM. Further investigations demonstrated that ablepharolide induced morphological changes in MCF‐7 cells, inhibited proliferation in a time‐ and dose‐dependent manner. Furthermore, western blot analysis revealed that ablepharolide induced a significant increase in cleaved caspase‐8, cleaved caspase‐3 and cleaved poly(ADP‐ribose) polymerase (PARP) in MCF‐7 cells. All of these results revealed that ablepharolide induced exogenous apoptosis in MCF‐7 cells.