Anthranoids of Some Kniphofia Species from Ethiopia
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Date
1984-06
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Addis Ababa Universty
Abstract
There are of least six reported s
in Ethiopiil of a total of 65 species of Kniphofia in
the world all of Vlhich are restricted to tropical
Jifrica andYemen. Rniphofia foliosa (family Liliaceee)
known in J\mharic as ilshenda or Shemetmete is used in
Ethiopian traditional medicine for the treatment of
abdominal cramps. Hecent eXilmination· of tl1e :vhizomes
of this species l\)T our research group resulted in the
isolation und chnructerization of chrysophanol and the
llew anthranoid·k nipholone.
Chloroform soluble fractions of the leaves of
K. foliosa afforded a new anthracene derivative, aloeerJodin
monoaceta-t;e, in midi tion to k.lipholone and
chrysophanol. The structure of this net'7 compound was
determined by spectral analysis of the natural product
and its derivatives. The leaves, flowers and rhizomes
of!li' folios a all contain knipholone as the major
anthranoid with trelCe amounts of chrysophanol. Aloe-eModin -acetate is localized only in the leaves
while the pigments desic;nated as Kf und K
f
are found
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only in the rhizomes.
l!'rom the acetone extract of the rhizomes of
K. isoetifoli8 Of two pic;pwntH Kf and Kf were iso-
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lated. The sodium dithionite reductive cleavage of
Kf as well as a mixture of Kf and Kf c;ave chryso-
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phanol and islBndicin as fruc;ments, a contribution
tOl'lnrds tile final structural elucidation of these as
yet unknown pigments.
On further investigntion islnndicin Vias isolated
for the first time from the rhizomes of ~. foliosa,
K. isoetifolia Of and from the lenves of K. folios a
and this finding probably constitutes the first
detection of islandicin in higher plants as it was
earlier reported only in func;i particularly in Penici-
Ilium islandicum.
Description
Keywords
Knilphofia specie