CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS FROM THE SEEDS OF BUTEA MONOSPERMA (LAM.) TAUB.

Mohammed Ali*, Shahnaz Sultana and Showkat Rassol Mir

ABSTRACT

Butea monosperma (Lam.) Taub. (family Fabaceae) is a small-sized, deciduous tree. Its seeds are used as an anthelmintic, antiparasitic, diuretic, purgative and to treat abdominal troubles, eye diseases, inflammation, piles, scorpion sting, skin diseases and tumours. Our study was planned to isolate chemical constituents from a methanolic extract of the seeds of this plant and to characterize their structures on the basis spectral data analysis. Phytochemical investigation of the seeds of B. monosperma led to isolate a long chain aliphatic constituent characterized as n-triacontane (1), fatty acid esters identified as n-propyl n-docos-11-enoate (n-propyl cetoleate, 2), n-pentyl n-docos-11-enoate (n-pentyl cetoleate, 4), tetradecan-1-oyl n-docos-11-enoate (myristyl cetoleate, 5) and eicosanyl octadecenoate (arachidyl stearate, 6), a new lactone compound viz., hexadecan-3(Z)-en-1,5-olide (3), and a new steroidal glycosidic ester formulated as stigmast-5-en-3β-ol-3α-D-glucuronopyranosyl - (9Z,12Z)-octadeca-9,12-dienoiate (β-sitosterol 3α-D- glucuranosyl linoleiate, 7 ).

Keywords: Butea monosperma, seeds, phytoconstituents, isolation, spectral data analysis, structure characterization.