Natural Products from Leaves of the Ancient Iranian Medicinal Plant Echium amoenum Fisch. & C. A. Mey

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 28; no. 1; p. 385
• Main Authors: Jamnani, Mehdi Jafari, Holmelid, Bjarte, Vedeler, Anni, Parsian, Hoda Houshiar, Andersen, Heidi Lie, Fossen, Torgils
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 02.01.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: 2D NMR; Anti-inflammatory agents; Caffeic acid; caffeoyl derivatives; Circular dichroism; Dichroism; Echium; Echium amoenum; Flowers; Flowers & plants; Functional foods & nutraceuticals; Herbal medicine; Inflammation; Leaves; Mass spectrometry; Mass spectroscopy; Medicinal plants; Medicine; Middle Ages; Natural products; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Nutritive value; Plants; polyphenols; Rosmarinic acid; Tea; Iran; polyphenols; leaves; 2D NMR; Echium amoenum; caffeoyl derivatives
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules28010385

For several millennia, leaves of Fisch. & C. A. Mey., an important Iranian medicinal plant with nutritional value as nutraceutical, have been used as tea for the treatment of several conditions, including inflammation. The nutritional value of intake of tea has mainly been correlated to its rich content of mainly water-soluble antioxidants. Although the entire plant is utilized, only natural products of the flowers have previously been thoroughly investigated. The rare natural products bis(3-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-1-methoxy-1-oxopropan-2-yl)-1-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-6,7-dihydroxy-1,2-dihydronaphthalene-2,3-dicarboxylate, 4-Oxy-( )-caffeoyl-2,3-dihydroxybutanoic acid methyl ester and 4-Oxy-( )-caffeoyl-2,3-dihydroxybutanoic acid methyl ester, in addition to the widely distributed compounds rosmarinic acid methyl ester and ( )-caffeic acid, were purified and characterized from leaves of . The structures were determined by a combination of several 2D NMR spectroscopic techniques, circular dichroism spectroscopy and high-resolution mass spectrometry. The fact that bis(3-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-1-methoxy-1-oxopropan-2-yl)-1-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-6,7-dihydroxy-1,2-dihydronaphthalene-2,3-dicarboxylate belongs to a rare group of natural products which have previously been patented for their significant anti-inflammatory activity may rationalize the traditional treatment of inflammations with .