Contribution to the chemical study of Picramnia antidesma ssp. fessonia

Abstract

From the chemical study carried out on the methanolic extract the leaf of Picramnia antidesma ssp. fessonia, aloe-emodin anthrones with novel structures were isolated. This study addressed the chemical analysis of the root extract of this same species with the aim of isolating the secondary metabolites present in this plant material. Methodology: The root was dried and chopped into small pieces, then macerated until exhausted, first with ethyl ether and then with methanol. The extracts were obtained after filtering and recovering each solvent using a vacuum rotary evaporator. Each extract was separated by open column chromatography, and the fractions obtained were observed and collected by thin-layer chromatography. The chemical structures of the isolated and purified compounds were elucidated by NMR spectroscopy. The results of the spectral analysis of metabolites isolated and purified from the root of P. antidesma ssp. fessonia led to the characterization of the anthraquinones islandicin, chrysophanol, emodin, an anthrone of emodin called picramnioside E or desoxysaroside, as well as β-sitosterol, umbelliferone, benzoic acid, and 7-hydroxy-5-methoxyphthalide from the ethyl ether extract; while the pulmatin anthraquinone was isolated from the methanolic extract. The conclusions of this part of the research are the following: This is the first report on the isolation of 7-hydroxy-5-methoxyphthalide from the genus Picramnia, as well as islandicin and pulmatin from the root of P. antidesma ssp. fessonia. Root extracts showed high cytotoxicity using the Artemia salina model.