Abstract: To investigate the chemical constituents and anti-inflammation of agarwood produced via whole-tree agarwood-inducing technique (Agar-Wit) from Aquilaria sinensis.The constituents from agarwood were isolated and purified by the chromatographic technique and Semi preparation HPLC.Ten 2-(2-Phenylethyl) chromones were isolated from the agarwood produced by Agar-Wit,their structures were identified on the basis of physiochemical characteristics and spectroscopic data analysis as 2-(2-phenylethyl)chromone (1),6-methoxy-2-(2-phenylethyl)chromone (2),5-hydroxy-6-methoxy-2-(2-phenylethyl) chromone (3),6,7-dimethoxy-2-［2-(4′-methoxyphenyl)ethyl］chromone (4),7-Hydroxy-6-methoxy-2-［2-(4′-methoxyphenyl) ethyl］chromone (5),2-［2-(4′-methoxyphenyl)ethyl］chromone (6),6,7-dimethoxy-2-［2-(3′-hydroxy-4′-methoxyphenyl)ethyl］chromone (7),6,7-dimethoxy-2-(2-phenyl ethyl)chromone (8),6,8-dihydroxy-2-［2-(3′-hydroxy-4′-methoxyphenyl)ethyl］ chromone (9),6-hydroxy-2-［2-(4′-methoxyphenyl)ethyl］chromone (10).All of the isolates were then assessed for their anti-inflammatory activities on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced nitric oxide (NO) production in RAW264.7.Compounds 2-4 and 10 showed significant anti-inflammatory activities with IC₅₀  values 5.31±0.75,5.57±0.62,0.57±0.02,3.78±0.64 μM,respectively.Compound 5 was reported from agarwood of A.sinensis for the first time,all the compounds were isolated from the agarwood produced by Agar-Wit for the first time,and has provided scientific foundation for quality evaluation of the agarwood produced by Agar-Wit.

Key words: whole-tree agarwood-inducing technique, 2-(2-Phenylethyl) chromones, agarwood, anti-inflammation