Aster souliei Franch, (Compositae) is a. herbaceous plant distributed innorth China. It has been used in folk medicine as antipyretic, detoxicant, expectorant andantitussive. In an effort to find biologically active components from Chinese medicinal plants ' ,we have examined the aerial parts of this herb, leading to the isolation of a clerodane-typediterpene, 18, 19-dihydroxy-5α, 10β-neo-cleroda-3, 13 (l4)-dien-16, 15-butenolide (1). In thispaper we report the structural elucidation, and the antitumor and antibacterial activities of thiscompound. It was found that 1 possesses moderate cytotoxicity against human leukemia cells (HL-60)and activity against microorganisms.
