CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS FROM THE RHIZOMES OF SANSEVIERIA ROXBURGHIANA SCHULT. & SCHULT. F.

Mohammed Ali*, Shahnaz Sultana, Showkat Rassol Mir and Shehla Nasar Mir Najib Ullah

ABSTRACT

Sansevieria roxburghiana Schult. & Schult. f. (family Asparagaceae), distributed in the Eastern coastal region of India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Bangladesh, tropical Africa and Myanmar, is a stemless evergreen, up to 1 m tall, perennial herb. Its rhizomes are used to treat colds, cough, ear pain, diabetes, inflammation, fever, asthma, wound, hypertension, oxidative stress and rheumatism. Our study was planned to isolate chemical constituents from a methanolic extract of the rhizomes of S. roxburghiana and to characterize their structures on the basis spectral data analysis. Phytochemical investigation of the rhizome methanolic extract led to isolate four fatty acid esters identified as dodecyl tetradecanoate (dodecanyl myristate, 1) and pentadecanyl dodecanoate (pentadecanyl laurate, 2), eicosa-9′-on -1′-olyl decanoate (9′-oxoarachinyl caprate, 3), and nonadecanyl dodecanoate (nonadecanyl laurate, 4), a long chain higher aliphatic constituent characterized as n-tritriacontane (5), a new lactone substituted hydroxyl acyl fatty acid ester formulated as 17′ β- hydroxyl-17′-(γ-lactone)-heptadecanyl palmitate (6) and an unknown lanostenyl lactone and its structure was established as lanast-5 -en-3 β-ol-21(24 β)-olide (7).

Keywords: Sansevieria roxburghiana, rhizomes, phytoconstituents, isolation, characterization.