Preparation and Cytotoxic Activities of Fatty Acid Derivatives of 20(S)- Protopanaxatriol

To discover the lead compounds with better antitumor activity, the synthesis and cytotoxic activities of fatty acid esters of 20(S)-protopanaxatriol (PPT) were investigated in this study. 22 fatty acid esters of PPT, including two known oleoy esters and other 20 new fatty acid esters, were synthesized using acyl chloride or fatty acid and N, N'- dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC). The structures were elucidated by the combined analysis of NMR and ESI-MS. The antitumor activities were tested in vitro in three cell lines, HepG2, Hela and SGC-7901, using the MTT method for the first time. The structural relationships between fatty acid derivatives of PPT and their cytotoxic properties were also discussed preliminarily in this paper.