Continentalic acid and kaurenoic acid are quality control markers in Aralia continentalis. Continentalic acid has anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and anti-bacterial activities, it shows moderate cytotoxicity against A-549 (lung), THP-1 (leukemia) and MCF-7 (breast) cell lines; it has minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of approximately 8-16 microg/mL against S. aureus, including the MSSA and MRSA standard strains.

Physcion is a dihydroxyanthraquinone that is 9,10-anthraquinone bearing hydroxy substituents at positions 1 and 8, a methoxy group at position 3, and a methyl group at position 6. It has been widely isolated and characterised from both terrestrial and marine sources. It has a role as a metabolite, an antibacterial agent, an antineoplastic agent, an antifungal agent, a hepatoprotective agent, an anti-inflammatory agent and an apoptosis inducer. Physcion shows cytotoxic effect on human cervical carcinoma HeLa cells and its apoptosis induction in HeLa cells was investigated by the expressions of p53, p21, Bax, Bcl-2, caspase-9, and caspase-3 proteins. Physcion controls powdery mildew mainly through changing the expression of defence-related genes, and especially enhancing expression of leaf-specific thionin in barley leaves.

Magnocurarine is a natural product from Magnolia officinalis.

Hamamelitannin has cytotoxic, and antibiofilm activities. It increases the susceptibility of S. aureus to antibiotic treatment in in vivo Caenorhabditis elegans and mouse mammary gland infection models. It also has a high protective activity on cell damage induced by peroxides.