Hedychium coronarium Koenig (Zingiberaceae) is a perennial rhizomatous herbrb, distributed in India, Malaysia, Vietnam, southern China, and Taiwan. Various labdane-type diterpenoids are widely distributed in plants of the genus Hedychium. Many of these compounds exhibit cytotoxic, anti-inflammatory, and hepato- protective activities and show inhibitory effects on the increase in vascular diterpenoids, hedychicoronarin A (1) and hedychicoronarin B (2), and four known compounds (3-6) have been isolated and identified from the rhizome of Hedychium coronarium. The structure of new compounds 1 and 2 was determined through spectral analyses including extensive 2D NMR data. This symposium describes the structural elucidation of 1 and 2 and the biological activities of the isolates.
