Myrrhanone C [8(R)-3-oxo-8-hydroxypolypoda-13E,17E,21-triene], a bicyclic triterpene isolated from the gum resin of Commiphora mukul, has been chemically transformed to synthesize a series of ten novel pyrimidine hybrids in good to excellent yields. The synthesized compounds (2–22) were evaluated for their anticancer potential against a panel of six cancer cell lines, namely A-549 (lung), Hela (cervical), MCF-7 (breast), ACHN (renal), Colo-205 (colon) and B-16 (mouse melanoma) by employing the MTT assay. In general, the synthesized compounds showed significant anticancer activity against all the cancer cell lines tested. Interestingly, the pyrimidine hybrids 18 and 19 showed good activity against the A-549, MCF-7, B-16, Colo-205 and ACHN cancer cell lines with \hbox {IC}_{50}IC50 values between 7.7–37.8 \upmu μM. Most significantly, compounds 19 (IC_{50}50: 7.7 \upmu μM) and 18 (IC_{50}50: 9.5 \upmu μM) showed about five- and six-fold enhanced activities, respectively, compared to the parent myrrhanone C (1) against A-549 cell line. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that compounds 18 and 19 induced apoptosis in A-549 cells and arrested the cell growth in the G0/G1 phase. Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.] © 2015, Springer International Publishing Switzerland.