Seven quassinoids from Fructus Bruceae with cytotoxic effects on pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell lines

Our previous studies showed that the alcohol extract of the fruit of Brucea javanica (Fructus Bruceae) possessed significant cytotoxicity in pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell lines. A bioassay-guided fractionation and purification resulted in the isolation and characterization of seven quassinoids including brusatol, bruceine D, bruceine H, yadanzioside A, yadanzioside G, javanicoside C and bruceantinoside A. Among them, brusatol exhibited the most potent in vitro antipancreatic Cancer action, with IC(50) values of 0.36 µm and 0.10 µm on PANC-1 and SW1990 cell lines, respectively. This is the first report on the antipancreatic adenocarcinoma activity of brusatol.