Anti-hyperlipidemia and anti-diabetic diarylheptanoids from the leaves of Aquilaria sinensis

Nineteen compounds, including one new diarylheptanoid, (3 R)− 1-(4-hydroxyphenyl)− 7-(4-methoxy-3-hydroxyphenyl)− 3-methoxyheptane (1) and one diarylheptanoid firstly found from nature, (3 R)− 4-(3-hydroxy-7-(4-methoxyphenyl)heptyl)phenol (2), together with four nor-sesquiterpenoids (3-6), five triterpenoids (7-11), five flavonoids (12-16), one benzophenone glycoside (17), and two lignans (18-19), were isolated from 95% ethanol extract of the leaves of Aquilaria sinensis. Their structures were identified by spectroscopic data analyses. The anti-hyperlipidemia effects of 1 and 2 were evaluated on a palmitic acid-oleic acid induced AML12 cell model, and they could decrease the content of triglycerides dose-dependently in the range of 10–40 μM. Moreover, a 2-NBDG glucose uptake assay on C2C12 myotubes showed that compounds 1 and 2 could dose dependently promote glucose uptake in the range of 10–40 μM. Further western blot study indicated that compound 1 activated AMPK and increased the expression of GLUT4 in C2C12 myotubes.