Isolation and structural elucidation of chemical constituents of Amanoa almerindae

Abstract

The present work describes the phytochemical investigation of the aerial parts of Amanoa almerindae Leal (Euphorbiaceae). After fractionation of the organic extracts, four pentacyclic triterpenes (friedelin, lupeol, betulin, betulinic acid), three steroids (β-sitosterol, sitostenone, daucosterol), a lignan (49-demethyl- deoxypodophyllotoxin) and for first time in this genus the presence of the biflavones amentoflavone, sequoiaflavone, and putraflavone were identified. The structures of isolated compounds were established by spectroscopic methods and confirmed by comparison with reference samples and literature data. No previous phytochemical study of Amanoa almerindae has been reported, and to the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of biflavonoids in the Amanoa genus.

Keywords::

• Euphorbiaceae
• Amanoa almerindae
• biflavones
• triterpenes
• lignan

Acknowledgement

This work was supported in part by a Grant for FONACIT (G200500389) and by CDCH of the Universidad Central de Venezuela Providence No. 06-017-2007 to A.I. Suàrez.