N-alkylamides from Litsea cubeba (Lour.) Pers. with potential anti-inflammatory activity

Abstract

Six amides, including a new N-alkylamide (1), four known N-alkylamides (2–5) and one nicotinamide (6) were isolated from Litsea cubeba (Lour.) Pers., which is a pioneer herb traditionally utilized in medicine. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of 1D and 2D NMR experiments and by comparison of their spectroscopic and physical data with the literature values. Cubebamide (1) is a new cinnamoyltyraminealkylamide and possessed obvious anti-inflammatory activity against NO production with IC₅₀ values of 18.45 μM. Further in-depth pharmacophore-based virtual screening and molecular docking were carried out to reveal the binding mode of the active compound inside the 5-LOX enzyme. The results indicate that L. cubeba, and the isolated amides might be useful in the development of lead compounds for the prevention of inflammatory diseases.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Lauraceae
• Litsea cubeba (Lour.) Pers.
• amides
• anti-inflammatory
• pharmacophore model
• molecular docking

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 82160661, 81960629, and 21662040).