Violanone

Flavonoids from the heartwood of the Thai medicinal plant Dalbergia parviflora and their effects on estrogenic-responsive human breast cancer cells.[Pubmed:19928832]

J Nat Prod. 2009 Dec;72(12):2163-8.

From the heartwood of Dalbergia parviflora, eight new compounds, khrinones A (1), B (2), C (3), D (4), and E (5), isodarparvinol B (6), dalparvin (7), and (3S)-sativanone (22), along with 32 known compounds, have been isolated and characterized as 17 isoflavones, nine isoflavanones, five flavanones, six isoflavans, and three miscellaneous substances. Isolates were evaluated for their cell proliferation stimulatory activity against the MCF-7 and T47D human breast cancer cell lines, and their luciferase inductive effects using luciferase transiently transfected MCF-7/luc and T47D/luc cells were also determined. Isoflavones such as genistein (10), biochanin A (11), tectorigenin (12), and 2'-methoxyformononetin (13) stimulated the proliferation of both cells, and concentrations of lower than 1 muM of these compounds showed equivalent activity to 10 pM of estradiol (E2). The new isoflavanone (22) also showed activity against both cell types, although it was weaker than that of the corresponding isoflavone (2'-methoxyformononetin, 13). Two optically active isoflavanones (22 and 24: (3S)-Violanone) stimulated the proliferation of both cell lines at lower concentrations than three racemates (21: vestitone, 23: 7,3'-dihydroxy-4'-methoxyisoflavanone, and 25: 3-O-methylViolanone). Bowdichione (20), an isoflavone with a quinone structure in its B-ring, showed activity against only one cell line associated with MCF-7 in these assays.

Simultaneous determination of 10 major flavonoids in Dalbergia odorifera by high performance liquid chromatography.[Pubmed:15935596]

J Pharm Biomed Anal. 2005 Sep 15;39(3-4):469-76.

A reversed-phase liquid chromatographic method was developed for the simultaneous quantification of 10 major flavonoids, namely butin, (3R)-4'-methoxy-2',3,7-trihydroxyisoflavanone, liquiritigenin, melanettin, Violanone, vistitone, formononetin, dalbergin, sativanone and medicarpin in the heartwood of Dalbergia odorifera, an important traditional Chinese medicine. Samples were extracted with 60% methanol. The optimal conditions of separation and detection were achieved on an Agilent Zorbax SB-C18 column (250 mm x 4.6 mm, 5 microm) with a gradient of acetonitrile and 0.3% (v/v) aqueous acetic acid, at a flow rate of 0.8 ml/min, detected at 275 nm. The complete separation was obtained within 55 min for the 10 target compounds. All calibration curves showed good linearity (r2>0.999) within test ranges. The assay was reproducible with overall intra- and inter-day variation of less than 3%. The mean recovery of the method was 100+/-10%, with R.S.D. less than 5%. The current assay method was considered to be suitable for the quality control of D. odorifera samples and could be readily utilized for the determination of the active principles present in this medicinal herb.