• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.543-550
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• 1996

Analogues of $2(S)-5, 2^{l}, 5^{l}$-trihydroxy-7, 8-dimethoxyflavanone, a naturally-occurring compound, which had been reported to have potent antitumor activity, were synthesized and examined for the cytotoxicity against three cancer cell lines. Among the intermediate chalcones and synthetic 5-hydroxy-7, 8-dimethoxyflavanone analogues, $({\pm})2^{l}, 5^{l}-dibenzyloxy-5, 7, 8-trimethoxyflavanone$ exhibited about 2-8 times stronger activity than $2(S)-5, 2^{l}, 5^{l}$-trihydroxy-7, 8-dimethoxyflavanone against L1210, K562 and A549 cancer cell lines. In the structure-activity relationship, it is suggested that among analogues of 5-hydroxy-7, 8-dimethoxyflavanone, the existence of two oxygenated groups of para-relation at $C-2^{I} and C-5^{I}$ positions on flavanone B-ring, may be necessary to exhibit effective cytotoxic activity.