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Chemical Investigation of Euphorbia schimperi C. Presl

Azza R. Abdel-Monem, Essam Abdel-Sattar, Fathalla M. Harraz, and Frank Petereit

1 Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Cairo 11562, Egypt,

2 Department of Natural Products and Alternative Medicine, Faculty of Pharmacy, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,

3 Instiute of Pharmaceutical Biology and Phytochemistry, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Hittorfstrasse 56-58, 48149, Münster, Germany

Abstract: Three triterpenoids; cycloart-25-en-3β,24-diol, cycloart-23-en-3β,25-diol, and a -amyrin, in addition to b -sitosterol- b -D-O-glucoside, scopoletin, luteolin and kampferol were isolated for the first time from the chloroform fraction of the alcoholic extract of Euphorbia schimperi C. Presl (F. Euphorbiaceae). The isolated compounds were identified using different spectroscopic methods (EIMS, 1HNMR, 13CNMR, HMQC, HMBC and COSY). The cytotoxic activity of the chloroform fraction was also studied using brain and breast carcinoma cell lines.

Keywords: Euphorbia schimperi , triterpenoids ; cycloartane, b -sitosterol- b -D-O-glucoside, scopoletin, luteolin; kampferol, cytotoxic activity.