A new pyrrolidone derivative from Pistacia chinensis Jian Jun Liu a,b , Chang An Geng a,b , Xi Kui Liu a, * a State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resourses in West China, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650204, China b Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China Received 4 July 2007 Abstract A new N-phenyl-pyrrolidone derivative had been isolated from Pistacia chinesis Bunge. Its structure was elucidated as 4-hydroxy-5-(2-oxo-1-pyrrolidinyl)-benzoic acid, named pistaciamide on the basis of the 1D-NMR, DEPT, HMQC and HMBC spectroscopic techniques. # 2007 Xi Kui Liu. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Chemical Society. All rights reserved. Keywords: Pistacia chinensis; 4-Hydroxy-5-(2-oxo-1-pyrrolidinyl)-benzoic acid; Pistaciamide; Pyrrolidone derivative Pistacia chinensis Bunge. (Anacardiaceae), widely distributed in China, is well-known as a landscaping and street trees. Its tender burgeon is used as an edible wild vegetable and tea in Chinese folk for its function of clearing away heat and toxic material; and its seeds used as an oil material [1]. Up to now, the chemical constituents of this plant had been fastened mainly on flavonoids and phenolic compounds [1–3]. Our investigation on this plant led to the isolation of a new N-phenylpyrrolidone derivative. This paper reports the isolation and structural elucidation of the new compound. The fresh tender burgeon and anthotaxy (10 kg, collected from Yuanjiang, Yunnan Province, April, 2005) was extracted exhaustively with 90% EtOH at room temperature. The EtOH extract was evaporated at 45 8C to yield a black residue (743 g). The residue was suspended in H 2 O and extracted with petroleum ether, EtOAc, n-butanol, respectively. The EtOAc extract (374 g) was subjected to silica gel column chromatography with CHCl 3 –MeOH (gradiently) as eluent to give fractions I–V . Fraction II (10% MeOH/CHCl 3 ) was purified by Sephadex LH-20 column chromatography eluted with MeOH/H 2 O gradiently from 25:100 to 100:20. The fraction was eluted with MeOH/H 2 O (1:1) to afford compound 1 (10 mg). Compound 1 was obtained as colorless needle crystals (MeOH), m.p. 218–220 8C. UV: l MeOH max (log e) 223 (4.18) nm. The EI-MS showed a molecular ion peak at m/z 221. The molecular formula of it was assigned as C 11 H 11 O 4 N by the HR-ESI-MS (m/z = 222.0766 [M + 1] + ; calcd. 222.0766). The IR spectrum (KBr) revealed the presence of – COOH (3500–2500 cm À1 , 1419 cm À1 , 1311 cm À1 , 1290 cm À1 ), –OH group (3442 cm À1 ), –C O (1685 cm À1 , 1637 cm À1 ) and aromatic ring (1589 cm À1 and 1493 cm À1 ). The 13 C NMR and DEPT spectra displayed eleven C-atom resonances, including two –C O groups at d175.5 (s, C-2 0 ), 169.0 (s, C-7) ppm, a trisubstituted phenyl at www.elsevier.com/locate/cclet Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Chinese Chemical Letters 19 (2008) 65–67 * Corresponding author. E-mail address: liuxikui@mail.kib.ac.cn (X.K. Liu). 1001-8417/$ – see front matter # 2007 Xi Kui Liu. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Chemical Society. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.cclet.2007.10.037