Chemical and Genetic Study of Ligularia cyathiceps in Yunnan Province of China

Root chemicals and evolutionarily neutral DNA regions in L. cyathiceps samples collected in the Zhongdian (Shangrila) County of Yunnan, P. R. China, were examined. Twenty compounds were isolated, including three new ones, 1β,10β‐epoxy‐6β‐(propionyloxy)furanoeremophilan‐9‐one (6), 1β,10β‐epoxy‐8α‐ethoxyeremophila‐6,11‐diene (14), and 11αH‐6β‐isobutyryloxy‐1β,10β,7β,8β‐diepoxyeremophilan‐12,8α‐olide (15). The chemical diversity was found to be limited, with cacalol (1) and 6‐(acyloxy)furanoeremophilan‐9‐ones (4 and/or 5) being major components in all the samples. The nuclear ribosomal RNA gene was also found to harbor little variation, although two distinct sequence types were found for the plastid atpB‐rbcL intergenic region.