Cinnamyl alcohols and methyl esters of fatty acids from Wedelia prostrata callus cultures

Abstract

Two methyl esters of fatty acids, namely octadecanoic acid methyl ester (methyl stearate) (1) and hexadecanoic acid methyl ester (methyl palmitate) (2), in addition to four cinnamyl alcohol derivatives, sinapyl alcohol (3), coniferyl alcohol (4), p-coumaryl alcohol (5) and coniferyl alcohol 4-O-glucoside (coniferin) (6), were isolated from callus cultures of Wedelia prostrata. The structure of coniferin was established by spectroscopic and chemical methods, while the other compounds were identified by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry and thin layer chromatography in comparison with standards.

Keywords:

• Wedelia prostrata
• MS medium
• callus cultures
• GC-MS
• coniferin

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Prof. Dr L. Beerhues (Institute for Pharmaceutical Biology, Braunschweig University of Technology, Germany) for providing the authentic samples, and Prof. Dr L. Ernst and Dr U. Papke (Institute for Organic Chemistry, Braunschweig University of Technology, Germany) for NMR and ESI-MS measurements, respectively.