Structurally diverse lignans from Solanum lyratum : chemical evidence for their acetylcholinease inhibitory activity.

A chemical investigation of Solanum lyratum Thumb. (Solanace) afforded two new lignans ( 1b and 3 ) and eleven known lignan analogues ( 1a , 2a / 2b and 4 - 11 ). Compounds 1a / 1b and 2a / 2b were separated as two pairs of enantiomers by chiral high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Their structures were elucidated by detailed spectroscopic and comparative literature data analysis. The absolute configurations of compounds 1a / 1b and 2a / 2b were determined by comparing the experimental ECD data with the calculated values. All compounds were evaluated for their acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitory activity. Notably, compared to the positive control, compounds 4 and 9 showed obvious AChE inhibition with their IC 50 values of 1.30 ± 0.25 and 0.89 ± 0.04 μM, respectively. In addition, the possible interaction between acetylcholinesterase and the active compounds was also investigated by molecular docking.