Our ongoing phytochemical investigation on Euphorbia fischeriana led to isolation of four new cytotoxic triterpenoids (1-4), along with twenty three known analogues (5-27). The new structures were characterised as fiseuphanins C-F (1-4) by NMR and HRESIMS spectroscopic experiments. Among them, isolates 8-15, 17-20, 22, and 25-27 were the first examples from E. fischeriana. Compounds 2, 11, and 13 exhibited significant cytotoxic activity against MCF-7 cell line with IC50 of 0.04, 6.30, and 2.44 µM, respectively, whereas, only compounds 6, 8, 11, and 23 exhibited weak inhibitory activity against A549 with IC50 values ranging from 36.37 to 81.49 µM.
Keywords: Euphorbia fischeriana; Euphorbiaceae; cytotoxicity; triterpenoids.