Activity-guided isolation of dried seeds of Jatropha curcas L. led to the isolation of two new lignans along with eight known compounds. These compounds were determined by spectroscopic analysis to be jatrophasin C (1), jatrophasin D (2), β-sitosterol (3), jatrophasin A (4), daucosterol (5), isoamericanol A (6), ( ± )-3,3'-bisdemethylpinoresinol (7), 7'-epi-sesamin-dicatechol (8), isoprincepin (9) and americanol A (10), of which 1 and 2 were new compounds. The antioxidative activities along with peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma exciting activity of these compounds were also determined.
Keywords: Euphorbiaceae; Jatropha curcas; antioxidative activity; lignan.