Four novel phenanthrene derivatives were isolated from
Domohinea perrieri Leandri (Euphorbiaceae) collected in Madagascar, and
have been structurally assigned as
3,6-dihydroxy-1,7-dimethyl-9-methoxyphenanthrene (1),
3,6-dihydroxy-1-hydroxymethyl-9-methoxy-7-methylphenanthrene (2),
3,6-dihydroxy-7-hydroxymethyl-9-methoxy-1-methylphenanthrene (3), and
3,6-dihydroxy-1,7-dihydroxymethyl-9-methoxyphenanthrene (4),
respectively. A further constituent was the navel hexahydrophenanthrene
derivative, domohinone (5), whose structure was confirmed by
single-crystal X-ray crystallography. Compounds 1-5 were evaluated for
cytotoxic and bleomycin-mediated DNA strand-scission activities.