Twelve lupane, 18
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-oleanane, and des-
E-lupane derivatives (
1a-
5b) were either extracted from natural sources orsynthesized from betulinic acid (
1a) and betulin (
2). Compounds
1b,
1c,
3b,
3c,
4b,
4c,
5a, and
5b were then used asstarting materials for further synthesis of a series of pyrazines and benzopyrazines (
6a-
18); 20 of them are new (
6a-
6e,
7a-
7d, and
10a-
18). Activity of pyrazine
6a against the T-lymphoblastic leukemia cell line CEM encouraged usto synthesize several new esters (
6b-
6d) to study structure-activity relationships with respect to substitution of thecarboxyl group at position 28. The synthesized compounds were tested for cytotoxicity against a variety of cancer celllines of different histogenetic origin, and the results were compared with cytotoxicity of the known starting compounds.Significant cytotoxic activity against A 549, K 562, and multidrug-resistant K 562-tax cell lines was found in pyrazines
6a,
6d, and
6e.