Antiproliferative bioassay-guided fractionation of the ethanolic extract of the endemic Madagascan plant Metaporana sericosepala led to the first natural product isolation of a butenolide diterpene, which was synthesized during an anti-inflammatory study in 1988. The structure of the compound was elucidated as 3-homofarnesyl-4-hydroxybutenolide (1) by analysis of its spectroscopic data, including 1D- and 2D-NMR data and chemical evidence. The once synthetic compound can now also be considered as a natural product. Compound 1 had modest antiproliferative activity towards the A2780 ovarian cancer cell line with an IC50 value of 8 μM.
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