Citation: Xiu-Qing Song, Xi-Yu Zheng, Qin-Qin Song, Ting Tang, Peng Sun, Jian-Mei Lu, Yao-Yue Fan, Kai-Long Ji. Unprecedented anti-adipogenic cadinane dimers from Stahlianthus involucratus: Discovery via an MS-MN-based activity-structure strategy[J]. Chinese Chemical Letters, ;2026, 37(11): 112186. doi: 10.1016/j.cclet.2025.112186 shu

Unprecedented anti-adipogenic cadinane dimers from Stahlianthus involucratus: Discovery via an MS-MN-based activity-structure strategy

Xiu-Qing Song ^{b, 1} ,
Xi-Yu Zheng ^{a, 1} ,
Qin-Qin Song ^b ,
Ting Tang ^a ,
Peng Sun ^a ,
Jian-Mei Lu ^a ,
Yao-Yue Fan ^{b, c, *,} ,
Kai-Long Ji ^{a, *,}

a.
Key Laboratory of Tropical Plant Resources and Sustainable Use, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
b.
Shandong Laboratory of Yantai Drug Discovery, Bohai Rim Advanced Research Institute for Drug Discovery, Yantai 264117, China
c.
State Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201203, China

s040500290@126.com

kl14ji@163.com

Received Date: 7 August 2025
Revised Date: 25 November 2025
Accepted Date: 26 November 2025
Available Online: 27 November 2025

Figures(7)

Four pairs of cadinane sesquiterpenoid dimers, distahlianoids A–D (1–4), featuring three distinct structural scaffolds, were isolated from the Dai medicinal plant Stahlianthus involucratus using a mass spectrometry (MS)-molecular networking (MN)-based activity-structure approach. Structurally, compound 1 exhibits a unique fused heptacyclic architecture comprising 5/6/6/6/6/6/5 ring system, characterized by a novel 9-methyl-2-oxabicyclo[3.3.1]nona-3,7‑dien-9-ol core structure. Compounds 2 and 3 feature unusual 5/6/6/5/6/6/5 and 5/6/6/5/6/6 polycyclic frameworks, respectively. Compound 4 is a skeleton-rearranged dimer containing a unique 2-methyl-[2,2′-bifuran]-3,5′(2H,2′H)‑dione motif. Given the enantiomeric nature of these compounds, their biosynthetic pathways were proposed, along with the stereoselective formation regularities. Compounds 1–4 significantly inhibited lipid accumulation in 3T3-L1 adipocytes, with (–)-4 showing the strongest effect (half maximal effective concentration (EC₅₀) = 1.04 ± 0.34 μmol/L) and high selectivity (selectivity index (SI) > 96).
- Stahlianthus involucratus,
- Cadinane dimers,
- Enantiomerism,
- Structure elucidation,
- Antiadipogenic activity
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