Besides flavonoids, phenanthrenes are the characteristic secondary metabolites of
Juncaceae species. These compounds are of great interest from structural, pharmacological
and chemotaxonomical points of view [1]
[2]. The aim of our work is the phytochemical and pharmacological investigation of Juncaceae
species occurring in the Carpathian Basin. In the course of this work, the isolation
of the secondary metabolites of J. articulatus, a perennial plant grows in moist areas, was performed. It is regarded as an environmental
weed, it can form dense mats of vegetation and is a strong competitor with native
species. The dried and ground plant material was extracted with methanol. After concentration,
the extract was dissolved in 50% aqueous methanol, and solvent-solvent partitions
were performed with hexane, chloroform and ethyl acetate. Phenanthrenes are enriched
in the chloroform phase; therefore, at first, this fraction was separated by column
chromatography and then it was further purified by Sephadex LH-20 gel chromatography.
As final purification, preparative thin-layer chromatography and high-performance
liquid chromatography were used. Structure elucidation of the isolated compounds was
carried out by NMR and MS spectroscopy as well as by comparison the data with literature
values. To date, ten phenanthrenes, among them five new ones, were identified from
jointleaf rush. The compounds are substituted with hydroxy, methyl, vinyl and acetylene
groups. Moreover, two flavonoids, a glycerol derivative and vanillin were also isolated
from the plant. All compounds were determined for the first time from J. articulatus.
