xanthone derivative, was mainly isolated from pericarps of the mangosteen fruit (Garcinia mangostana L.). In present investigation, a series of derivatives were designed, synthesised and evaluated in vitro for their inhibitoryactivity of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE). Among the synthesised xanthones, compounds 1, 9, 13 and 16 showed AChE selective inhibitoryactivity, 15
their cytotoxicity against a panel of five humancancercelllines (HL-60, SMMC-7721, A-549, MCF-7 and SW480) using MTT assays. Most of them showed cytotoxicity and most of all, compounds 1a and 2h showed the highest cytotoxicpotency by HL-60 cancercelllines with IC50 values of 5.96 μM and 6.90 μM respectively; compound 3e showed the highest cytotoxicpotency against SMMC-7221 cancercell line with