The flavonoids of four Pistacia species in Egypt

Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 28 (2000) 915}917

The #avonoids of four Pistacia species in Egypt S.A. Kawashty, S.A.M. Mosharrafa*, M. El-Gibali, N.A.M. Saleh Phytochemistry and Plant Systematics Department National Research Center, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt Received 11 August 1999; received in revised form 27 September 1999; accepted 15 November 1999

Keywords: Pistacia; Anacardiaceae; Flavonoids; Chemosystematics

1. Subject and source Fresh material (aerial parts, leaves and stems) was collected when possible, collection data (place, date and collector) are outlined and an asterisk indicates a herbarium sample. Samples were identi"ed by M.El-Gibali, and voucher specimen are deposited at the Herbarium (CAIRC) of the National Research Center, or that of the Faculty of Science, Cairo University (CAI). P. atlantica Desf.: (1) North Sinai, 10.8.1996, ElGibali and Saleh. (CAIRC). (2)*Plant island, Aswan, 14.4.1964, El-Mahdi s.n. (CAI). (3)*Zoological garden, Giza, 3.6.1968 El-Mahdi s.n. (CAI). P. chinensis Bge.: (1) Zoological garden, Giza, 14.10.98, Kawashty (CAIRC). P. khinjuk Stocks: (1) Wadi Talah, South Sinai, 2.9.97, El-Gibali (CAIRC). (2)*Gebel shenelodai, Gebel Elba area, 10.2.62 V. Taeckholm et. al., 1983 (CAI). (3)*Wadi Haikwal, Gebel Elba area, 23.10.1956 Boulos (CAI). P. lentiscus L.: (1) Zoological garden, Giza, 14.10.98, Kawashty (CAIRC).

2. Previous work The genus Pistacia L. belongs to the family Anacardiaceae. Pistacia vera has been reported to contain cyanidin-3-galactoside (Bouguet, 1921), while dihydroquercetin, taxifolin, distylin, "setin and naringenin were reported from Pistacia chinensis (Keys, 1976). Little is known about the chemistry of P. atlantica, P. khinjuk and P. lentiscus.

* Corresponding author. Fax: #20-2-337-6931. 0305-1978/00/$ - see front matter  2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 3 0 5 - 1 9 7 8 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 1 1 3 - 1

#

## ## # ###

###

### ### ###

Q-3-G ## ## ##

Q-3-Gal

## ## # #

*

# # #

Q-3-Rut

* * * *

*

# # #

### ## ## #

*

* * *

Q-3-G-7-Gal Myr-3-G

### ## ## *

*

* * *

Myr-3-Gal

### ### ### *

*

* * *

Myr-3-Rut

* * * #

#

## ## ##

Vicenin-2

Note: K-3-G"Kaempferol-3-glucoside; Q-3-G"quercetin-3-glucoside; Q-3-Gal"quercetin-3-galactoside; Q-3-Rut"quercetin-3-rutinoside; Q-3-G-7Gal"quercetin-3-glucoside-7-galactoside; My-3-G"myricetin-3-glucoside; My-3-Gal"myricetin-3-galactoside; My-3-Rut"myricetin-3-rutinoside.

Pistacia lentiscus

##

1

Pistacia chinensis Pistacia khinjuk

*

# # #

1 2 3

Pistacia atlantica

1 2 3 1

K-3-G

Sample

Species

Table 1 Distribution of #avonoids in investigated Pistacia species

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S.A. Kawashty et al. / Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 28 (2000) 915}917

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3. Present study The fresh material was extracted with 70% ethyl alcohol (3 times). The extracts were concentrated and separated on polyamide columns (SC6- Macherey Nagel) using water as a solvent followed by increasing concentrations of ethyl alcohol. Flavonoid glycoside fractions were puri"ed by using elution techniques on Whatman 3MM paper followed by puri"cation on Sephadex LH-20 columns. Standard methods of identi"cation were followed (Harborne, 1967; Mabry et al., 1970; Markham, 1982). These included complete and partial acid hydrolysis, hydrogen peroxide oxidation, enzymatic hydrolysis, co-chromatography with authentic samples, UV spectrophotometry and nuclear magnetic resonance measurements. Nine #avonoid glycosides were isolated from the aerial parts of the four Pistacia species. The glycosides were identi"ed as kaempferol-3-glucoside, quercetin-3-glucoside, quercetin-3-galactoside, quercetin-3-rutinoside, quercetin-7-galactoside, apigenin-6,8-di-C-glucoside(vicenin 2), myricetin-3-glucoside, myricetin-3-galactoside and myricetin-3-rutinoside (Table 1).

4. Chemotaxonomic signi5cance Pistacia khinjuk, a shrub or a small deciduous tree is widely distributed in Egypt(Sinai), North Iraq, Iran and eastwards to Kashmir. The collected material from the southern mountains of Sinai belongs to P. khinjuk. As the only evergreen member of the genus Pistacia, it stands unique in its #avonoid composition as compared to the other three species investigated, in having three myricetin glycosides as its major glycosides. The other three species contained quercetin 3-glucoside as their major glycoside.

References Bouguet, J., 1921. Matiere Medicale Indigene de l'Afrique du Nord. Bull. Soc. Pharmacol. 28, 22}36. Harborne, J.B., 1967. In: Harborne, J.B. (Ed.), Comparative Biochemistry of Flavonoids. Academic Press, London. Keys, J.D., 1976. Chinese Herbs, their Botany, Chemistry and Pharmacodynamics. Charles E. Tuttle Company; Rutland. Mabry, T.J., Markham, K.R., Tomas, M.B., 1970. The Systematic Identi"cation of Flavonoids. Springer, Berlin. Markham, K.R., 1982. Technique of Flavonoid Identi"cation. Academic Press, London.