CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE AERIAL PARTS OF DIDYMOCARPUS PEDICELLATA R. BR.

Irshad Ahmad Lone, Mohammad Ali*, M. Sarwar Alam, Showkat Rasool Mir and Shahnaz Sultana

ABSTRACT

Didymocarpus pedicellatus R.Br. (family Gesneriaceae) is a small stemless herb used to treat chest pain, cough, cuts, diabetes, diarrhoea, epilepsy, heart and renal diseases, bladder and kidney stones, splenitis, stomach ache, syphilis, ulcers and wound. The present study was designed to isolate and characterize chemical constituents of the aerial parts of D. pedicellata. Phytochemical investigations of a chloroform fraction of the alcoholic extract of aerial parts resulted in the isolation of 4-(hept-7-enyl) – phenol (p-heptenyl phenol, 1) and four aliphatic acids identified (all Z)- n-hexacosa-9, 19, 21-trienoic acid (2), n-hexacosa-8 (Z)- en-l-oic acid (3), n-hexacosa-10 (Z)-enl-oic acid (4) and (all Z)- n-octacosa-5, 15,19, 22-tetraen-l-oic acid (5). GC-MS analysis of a petroleum ether fraction of the alcoholic extract of the aerial parts showed high amounts of aliphatic alcohols (49.3 %) and aliphatic esters. The predominant components were n-heneicosan-1,6-diol (44.5 %), glyceryl oleate (22.7 %) and glyceryl linoleate (6.8%). The other aliphatic alcohols detected in small amounts included n-tetradec-5,7,9-trien-1-ol, n-nonadec-9,11,13-trien-1-ol, n-nonadec-6,10,13-trien-9-ol and 1-phenyl-n-docos-11-en-2,3,6-triol.

Keywords: Didymocarpus pedicellatus, aerial parts, ethanolic extract, phytoconstituents, isolation, characterization.