Chemical constituents from tiger's betel, Piper porphyrophyllum N.E.Br. (Fam. Piperaceae)

Abstract

Seven flavonoid compounds have been isolated from the aerial parts of tiger's betel (Piper porphyrophyllum), which were identified as 5,7-dimethoxyflavone, 4′,5,7-trimethoxy-flavone, 3′,4′,5,7-tetramethoxyflavone, 4′-hydroxy-3′,5,7-trimethoxyflavone, 5-hydroxy-3′,4′,7-trimethoxyflavone, 4′,5-dihydroxy-3′,7-dimethoxyflavone and 5-hydroxy-7-methoxyflavanone. The identification of all compounds was achieved by physical properties and spectroscopically. These data were also confirmed by comparison with previously reported spectral data. Flavonoid compounds with high content in P. porphyrophyllum can probably be used as a chemical marker for this Piper species.

Keywords:

• Piper porphyrophyllum
• Piperaceae
• flavones
• flavanones

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Mr Ahmed Zainuddin bin Ibrahim for the identification of the collected plant specimen used in this study, and to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Malaysia, for financial support under vote 74051 and 79074, and the Ibnu Sina Institute and Faculty of Science, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, for the NMR facilities.