Stilbenoid compounds from the lianas of Gnetum microcarpum

The plants of Gnetaceae with its sole genus, Gnetum, are known to contain oligostilbenoids and have been ethnobotanically used in the folk treatment of arthritis, bronchitis and asthma. About 30 to 40 Gnetum species are found in the tropical lowlands of the world, from northeastern South America, tropical West Africa, and south China to Southeast Asia. Previously, many studies have been done on several species of Gnetum which revealed various stilbenes and oligostilbenes, some of which have multiple bioactivities such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antitumour and so on. In our search for structurally and biologically interesting compounds from tropical plants found in Malaysia, the lianas of Gnetum microcarpum have been investigated. Gnetum microcarpum Blume grows in Malaysia and the phytochemical investigation of this plant has never been reported. The acetone extract of the lianas of this plant, when subjected to various chromatographic techniques, has led to the isolation of five known stilbenes, which are; isorhapontigenin (1), cuspidan B (2), gnetifolin M (3), parvifolol D (4) and malaysianol D (5) as shown in [Fig. 1]. The structures were determined using spectroscopic techniques of 1D and 2D NMR, and MS and the known compounds were readily identified by comparison of physical and spectroscopic data with previous values from the literature.

Fig. 1 Structure of compounds 1-5.

Funding Fundamental Research Grant Scheme: FRGS/1/2021/STG04/UITM/01/1, Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia. Faculty of Applied Sciences and Atta-ur-Rahman Institute for Natural Product Discovery, Universiti Teknologi MARA for providing the research facilities.

 

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Publikationsverlauf

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
16. November 2023