Inhibitory Effects of Constituents from the Aerial Parts of Rosmarinus officinalis L. on Triglyceride Accumulation.

Sixteen flavonoids ( 1 - 16 ) including two new ones, named officinoflavonosides A ( 1 ) and B ( 2 ) were obtained from the aerial parts of Rosmarinus officinalis . Among the known ones, 6 , 10 , and 13 were isolated from the rosmarinus genus for the first time. Their structures were elucidated by chemical and spectroscopic methods. Moreover, the effects on sodium oleate-induced triglyceride accumulation (TG) in HepG2 cells of the above-mentioned compounds and 16 other isolates ( 17 - 32 ) reported previously to have been obtained in the plant were analyzed. Results show that eight kinds of flavonoids (compounds 1 , 2 , 3 , 6 - 9 and 11 ) and seven kinds of other known isolates (compounds 17 - 20 , 23 , 26 and 31 ) possessed significant inhibitory effects on intracellular TG content in HepG2 cells. Among them, the activities of compounds 1 and 20 were comparable to that of orlistat, which suggested that these compounds in this plant might be involved in lipid metabolism.