Records of Natural Products Articles

The bark essential oils from two different individuals of Cedrela tonduzii were obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The chemical compositions of the two oils were qualitatively similar, but showed quantitative differences. One sample had abundant quantities of a -selinene (32%) and germacrene-D (17%), while the second sample was rich in a-humulene (34%), β-caryophyllene (13%) and germacrene-D (13%).

The antioxidant activities of the alkaloid extracts of Fumaria capreolata (L.) and Fumaria bastardii (L.) were determined by measuring their reducing power, their ability to inhibit linoleic acid peroxidation, and 2,2-diphenyl-β-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activities. Total quinolizidine alkaloid contents were found to be 426 mg/100 g (F.capreolata) and 521 mg/100g (F.bastardii). Both plant extracts exhibited strong total antioxidant activity, however, extract of F.bastardii was more potent then F.capreolata. Concentrations of 100, 300, and 500µg mL -1 showed 42, 55, 65 and 48.3, 60, and 67.8 % inhibition of lipid peroxidation of linoleic acid emulsion, for F.capreolata and F.bastardii extracts, respectively. On the other hand, 500µg mL -1 of the standard antioxidant butylated hydroxyianisole (BHA), quercetine, and caffeine exhibited 80, 56.2, and 64.3% inhibition of lipid peroxidation, respectively. In addition, the both extracts had effective reducing power, DPPH free radical scavenging activity at 250 and 50 µg mL -1. The isoquinoline alkaloids, stylopine, protopine, fumaritine, fumaricine, fumarophycine, fumariline, fumarofine were determined by GC-MS from the aerial parts of F. capreolata and F. bastardii.

Artemisinin (quinghaosu) is a natural compound, isolated from Artemisia annua L. (Compositae), of current interest in treatment of drug-resistant malaria. Aim of the current study was to hit upon novel artemisinin sources as alternative to A. annua. Therefore, ten species of the genus Artemisia (A. santonicum L., A. taurica Willd., A. spicigera K. Koch, A. herba-alba Asso, A. haussknechtii Boiss., A. campestris L., A. araratica Krasch., A. armeniaca Lam., A. austriaca Jacq., and A. abrotanum L.) collected from different localities throughout Turkey were analyzed with respect to artemisinin amount using a reliable and fast Reversed Phase-High Performance Liquid Chromatography (RP-HPLC) analysis technique. HPLC conditions used for determination of the artemisinin content were established as follows; ACE-5 C18 column (250 x 4.6 mm , 5 m m ) was employed with the mobile phase of formic acid (% 0.2 v/v): acetonitrile (50:50 v/v) mixture at the flow rate of 1 mL/min. The good linearity of artemisinin was found within the range of 0.1 – 100 m g/mL (r 2= 0.99908). However, our study showed that artemisinin was not detected in all investigated Artemisia species of Turkish origin.