After finding that AI patients Calceolarioside-B suffer more frequently from the metabolic syndrome we asked for the underlying mechanism. To test the possibility that the chronic inflammation induces metabolic disturbances in these patients, we correlated Sartorius score and duration of disease with individual parameters for metabolic syndrome. Surprisingly, no significant correlation was found. Interestingly, with the exception of the Sartorius score we also did not detect significant differences regarding metabolic alterations between AI patients who never had surgical intervention versus those after relevant surgical therapy. All these facts suggest that chronic inflammation is not the major driver of the metabolic alterations in AI patients. Based on our results we speculate that the metabolic alterations might be the primary rather than a secondary pathological event in these patients, i.e., that they might trigger AI. For many years, these natural products and synthetic derivatives attract widespread attention for their extensively therapeutic activities, such as anticancer activity, anti-inflammatory activity, antibacterial activity, and so on. However, the specific biomolecular targets of these compounds on cell growth have not been clearly identified until now. Early studies illustrated that phenanthroindolizidine alkaloids could inhibit RNA, DNA synthesis, and L-Ascorbyl 6-palmitate inhibited protein synthesis at the elongation stage of the translation procedure by locating on 40S ribosomal component. Recently, some possible targets were reported, including metabolic enzymes and some elements engaged in gene transcription. Moreover, recent research demonstrated that these compounds with similar structures may act on different targets. Although the biological activities of these compounds are affirmative, there are some side effects limiting their application as anticancer drugs, especially CNS toxicity arose in natural tylocrebrine obviously for disorientation and ataxia. And as far as we know, there is not a phenanthroindolizidine alkaloid applied in clinical application up to now. Therefore, it is very pressing to discover novel phenanthroindolizidine alkaloids with profound anticancer activity and reduced CNS toxicity as drug candidates. The human body is endowed with a wide range of antioxidants to protect cells from damage induced by free radicals and other reactive species. Glutathione is one of the most important endogenous hydrophilic antioxidants. It is synthesized in many different cell types from its constituting amino acids glutamic acid, cysteine and glycine, and is therefore not required in the human diet. The actual antioxidant property of GSH is attributable to the thiol group that is present in its cysteine moiety. As an effective nucleophile, GSH also plays an important role in the protection against electrophilic compounds. Like GSH, ascorbic acid is also an important hydrophilic antioxidant.