CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS FROM THE FRUIT PEELS OF CITRUS RETICULATA BLANCO VAR. KINNOW

Mohammed Ali *, Shahnaz Sultana and Showkat Rassol Mir

ABSTRACT

Citrus reticulata Blanco var. kinnow (family Rutaceae), is a small, evergreen, spinous, tree, up to 8 m tall cultivated around the world in the warm temperate and tropical areas. Its fruit rind is used as a spice, to improve digestion, to reduce cough with profuse phlegm and to relieve abdominal and gastric distension, dyspepsia, hiccup and vomiting. Our study was planned to isolate chemical constituents from a methanolic extract of the fruit peels of this plant and to characterize their structures on the basis spectral data analysis. Phytochemical investigation of the fruit peels of Citrus reticulata Blanco var. kinnow led to isolate two fatty esters identified as n-hexadecanyl butyrate (cetyl butyrate, 1) and methyl arachidate (methyl eicosanoate, 2), a new acyclic diterpenic acid formulated as 3,7,11,15-tetramethyl hexadecane-14α-ol-1-oic acid (3), a known pentacyclic triterpenic methyl ester characterized as oleanolic acid methyl ester (methyl oleanolate, 4) and a new steroidal glycosidic flavone and its structure was elucidated as β-sitosterol 3β-D-glucuronosyl –(6'→ 7′′)-apigenin (5).

Keywords: Citrus reticulata Blanco var. kinnow, fruit peels, phytoconstituents, isolation, spectral data analysis, structure characterization.