From the ethyl acetate extract of the seeds of Vietnamese Cnidium monnieri L., three coumarins, osthole (1), xanthotoxin (2), imperatorin (3) and a sterol, daucosterol (4) have been purified. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic analysis. Furthermore, 8-(3-hidroxy-3-methylbutyl)-7-methoxycoumarin (5) was synthesised from osthole (1) with a good yield (80%). In addition, compound 1 and its synthesis product (5) show moderate and non-selective cytotoxic activities against four cancer cells, KB (a human epidermal carcinoma), MCF7 (human breast carcinoma), SK-LU-1 (human lung carcinoma) and HepG2 (hepatocellular carcinoma).
