Abstract
The aerial parts ofCentaureaa egyptiacaafforded 10 secondary metabolites including four sesquiterpene lactones; chlorohyssopifolin A (centaurepensin) (1), rediolpidetriol (2), linichlorinA (3), and sinaicin (4), one monoterpene; loliolid (5), one phenolic: tyrosol (6), three lignans; arctigenin (7), matairesinol (8), and pinoresinol (9), and one steroid; ergosta-5,22-dien-3-ol (10). The cluster analysis of 32Centaureaspecies revealed thatC. aegyptiacais closely related toC. repensandC. solstitialise. The isolated compounds (1-10) were screened against CCRF-CEM-leukemia, MDA-MB-231-pcDNA3 breast cancer, and HCT116 (p53(+)/(+)) colon carcinoma cell lines. Compounds1and2were the most potent compounds against both leukemia and breast carcinoma cell lines.