Flavonoids and a chromone from the twigs of Cynometra cauliflora Linn.

Cynometra cauliflora Linn., a member of the bean family Fabaceae, with the vernacular name Nam-nam, was believed to be native to Malaysia and cultivated in Indonesia and India [1]. C. cauliflora is a small, much- branched perennial tree growing up to 5m tall. It is a typical underutilized fruit tree. This plant was used as traditional folk medicine in treating several diseases and is also cultivated as an ornamental plant in villages [2]. This study focused on investigating the constituents from the twigs part of this plant. The extraction and isolation of the acetone extract of C. cauliflora Linn. twigs by a combination of a repetitive radial and preparative thin layer (pTLC) chromatographic techniques have successfully yielded nine pure compounds which consist of eight flavonoids; naringenin (1), eriodictyol (2), luteolin (3), luteolin-3’,5-dimethyl ether (4), acacetin (5), 3’,4’,7-trihydroxyflavone (6), 4’,7-dihydroxyflavone (7) and apigenin (8) and one chromone known as 5,7-dihydroxychromone (9) ([Fig. 1]). The structures of these compounds were determined and confirmed on the basis of analysis of spectral evidence and comparison with the published data.

Fig. 1 Structure of compounds 1-9.

Compound 7 showed good PGE2 inhibitory activity with an IC₅₀ value of 3.39 µM as compared to standard indomethacin with an IC₅₀ of 1.29 µM.

Funding Fundamental Research Grant Scheme: FRGS/1/2021/STG04/UITM/01/1, Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia.

 

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

• References

• 1 Seidemann J.. World spice plants. Springer; Berlin-Heidelberg: 2005. 131.
• 2 Ikram E.H.K., Eng K.H., Jalil A.M.M., Ismail A., Idris S., Azlan A., Mokhtar R.A.M.. Antioxidant capacity and total phenolic content of Malaysian underutilized fruits. Journal of Food Composition and Analysis 2009; 22 (05) 388-393

Publication History

Article published online:
16 November 2023