Antimutagenic Terpenes and Sterols from Vitex parviflora
Consolacion Y. Ragasa, Esther Samantha C. Javier and Irene G. Tan
Chemistry Department, De La Salle University
2401 Taft Avenue, Manila, 1004 Philippines
corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
ABSTRACT
Column chromatography of the ethyl acetate extract of the leaves of Vitex parviflora yielded, among others, samples 1 and 2. These were bioassayed with the micronucleus test and were found to be antimutagenic. Determination of the constituents of these samples by NMR analyses indicated the presence of phytol 1a in sample 1, with lupeol 1b and b-amyrin 1c as impurities (< 10%) and sitosterol (2a) and stigmasterol (2b) in sample 2.
INTRODUCTION
This paper is part of our research on the isolation, structure elucidation, antimicrobial and/or antimutagenicity tests of the constituents of Philippine medicinal plants. We have worked on more than two hundred plants which resulted in the discovery of about thirty new compounds and identification of more than a hundred known compounds. The plant studied for this paper was Vitex parviflora, commonly known as molave which is a much sought-after hardwood with the following medicinal applications. An infusion of the molave wood is considered a good remedy for poisons because it induces vomiting, while molave bark is also used as a docoction for diarrhea (Quisumbing 1978). There is only one study on the plant, which reported the isolation of retusin from the air-dried leaves of V. parviflora (Ragasa et al. 2000). Studies on certain species under the genus Vitex reported the isolation of flavones, diterpenes (Banerji et al. 1969), sterols, glucosides, and some fatty acids (Kondo et al. 1986). . . . . . .
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