Natural Product Research, Vol. 21, No. 4, April 2007, 343–350 A new steroid glycoside and furochromones from Cyperus rotundus L. HANAA M. SAYEDy, MAHMOUD H. MOHAMEDz, SALWA F. FARAG*y, GAMAL A. MOHAMEDz and PETER PROKSCHx yFaculty of Pharmacy, Pharmacognosy Department, Assiut University, Assiut 71526, Egypt zFaulty of Pharmacy, Pharmacognosy Department, Al-Azhar University, Assiut, Egypt xInstitute of Pharmaceutical Biology and Biotechnology, Heinrich-Heine-University, Universita¨tsstraße 1, 40225 Du¨sseldorf, Germany (Received 11 September 2006; in final form 10 January 2007) Further phytochemical investigation of the aerial parts of Cyperus rotundus L. afforded a new steroid glycoside named sitosteryl (6 0 -hentriacontanoyl)--D-galactopyranoside (4) in addition to three furochromones, khellin (2), visnagin (3) and ammiol (9). Furthermore, benzo--pyrone (coumarin) (1), salicylic acid (5), caffeic acid (6), protocatechuic acid (7), p-coumaric acid (8), tricin (10) and isorhamnetin (11) were isolated. The structures of these compounds were established by spectroscopic methods. The isolated furochromones were tested for insect antifeedant activity against larvae Spodoptera littoralis when incorporated in artificial diet and offered to larvae in a chronic feeding bioassay. Also, visnagin, khellin and sitosteryl (6 0 -hentriacontanoyl)--D-galactopyranoside showed strong cytotoxic activity against L5178y mouse lymphoma cells and were also active in the brine shrimp lethality test. Keywords: Cyperus rotundus L.; Cyperaceae; Steroid glycoside; Furochromones; Antifeedant and cytotoxic activities 1. Introduction Cyperus rotundus L. (Nutgrass, F. Cyperaceae) is a weed which is widespread in many tropical and subtropical regions of the world [1]. The tubers of the plant are used in folk medicine as sedative, carminative, stimulant, tonic, aphrodisiac, diuretic, stomachic, anthelmintic, colic remedy and to remove renal calculi [1]. Additionally, they are used as hypotensive, estrogenic, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, antiemetic [2], remedy for dysentery and women’s diseases [3]. Also, the plant exhibited antidiarrhoeal [4], hepatoprotective [5], antimalarial [6,7], insecticidal [8] and anti-diabetic activities [9,10]. Isolation of sesquiterpenes [11–13], quinones [11,14], flavonoids [11, 15–18], stilbe- noids [19], coumarins [20] and phenylpropanoids [17] have been reported from different Cyperus species. Concerning the phytochemical constituents of C. rotundus L., sesquiterpenes [7,11,12,21–28], flavonoids [11,15], phenylpropanoids [29], *Corresponding author. Tel.: þ20-88-2411289. Fax: þ20-88-2332776. Email: farag_s@yahoo.com Natural Product Research ISSN 1478-6419 print/ISSN 1029-2349 online ß 2007 Taylor & Francis http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals DOI: 10.1080/14786410701193056