Short communication Triterpenoids and sterols from the grains of Echinochloa utilis Ohwi & Yabuno and their cytotoxic activity Thi Trang Nguyen a,d , Duc Hung Nguyen a,b , Bing Tian Zhao a , Duc Dat Le a , Byung Sun Min a , Young Ho Kim c , Mi Hee Woo a, * a College of Pharmacy, Drug Research and Development Center, Daegu Catholic University, Gyeongsan 38430, Republic of Korea b Phutho College of Medicine and Pharmacy, Viettri City, Phutho Province 290000, Viet Nam c Laboratory of Immunobiology, School of Life Science and Biotechnology, College of Natural Sciences, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 39061, Republic of Korea d Buon Ma Thuot University, Buon Ma Thuot City, Dak Lak Province 630000, Viet Nam A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 4 April 2017 Received in revised form 4 June 2017 Accepted 13 June 2017 Keywords: Echinochloa utilis Echinochlorins C and D Sawamilletin Cytotoxic activity A B S T R A C T Two new tetracyclic triterpenoids, echinochlorins C (1) and D (2), and sawamilletin (3) with new spectroscopic data were isolated from Echinochloa utilis Ohwi & Yabuno grains, along with one known triterpenoid (4) and eight sterols (5–12). Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic data analyses (IR, UV, MS, and NMR). These compounds were tested in vitro cytotoxic activities against the human tumor-cell lines (HeLa, HL-60, and MCF-7). Compounds 6 and 8 displayed potential cytotoxic activity against HeLa, with IC 50 values of 3.1  0.9 and 3.2  0.8 mM, respectively. This finding indicated that tetracyclic triterpenoids isolated from E. utilis may have potential beneficial effects for the treatment of cancer. © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Cancer is a widespread life-threatening disease that attacks people at all ages, notably elderly people [1]. Various remedies have been reported for treatment of this disease, but the development of suitable therapies is still a major challenge. Many substances are in clinical trial or used in practice to treat cancer. Despite the increased number of choices, many patients either fail to respond to early attempts at disease control or relapse after a remission. Therefore, there is a continuing need for new options [2]. Fortunately, fruits and vegetable peels have an advantage over other herbal extracts, as they are easily identifiable, commonly used, and rich in various bioactive compounds, and some of their compounds have been characterized in terms of their chemical structures and biological properties [3]. The grains of Echinochloa utilis Ohwi & Yabuno (Family: Poaceae) have been widely used in Korea, Japan, and China food [4].Their grains were commonly used as a food source and are a functional food for treatment of allergic disease [4]. Our previous study found that lignans, flavonoids, and fatty acids from E. utilis grains possessed potential anti-inflammation activity [4,5]. On the other hand, several studies reported that phenolics and flavonoids in E. utilis grains had potent anti-oxidant capacity [4–6]. Thus, their constituents are expected to be effective in the prevention of several diseases and morbid states. These research results prompted us to investigate its further chemical and pharmacolog- ical constituents. This study was conducted to search the active constituents responsible for their cytotoxic activity against three human cancer cell lines, HeLa, HL-60, and MCF-7. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. General experimental procedures The specific rotations were performed on a JASCO DIP-370 digital polarimeter. The infrared (IR) spectra were recorded on a Mattson Polaris FT/IR-300E spectrophotometer. UV spectra were measured in CHCl 3 using a Shimadzu spectrophotometer. The nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra were recorded in CDCl 3 or methanol-d 4 on an Oxford AS 400 MHz instrument (Varian, Palo Alto, CA, USA). Mass spectra were recorded using a Quattro II mass spectrometer. Column chromatography was performed using silica * Corresponding author. E-mail address: woomh@cu.ac.kr (M.H. Woo). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biopha.2017.06.042 0753-3322/© 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved. Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy 93 (2017) 202–207 Available online at ScienceDirect www.sciencedirect.com