Contribution to chemical knowledge of plants of northeast: Andira surinamensis e Piper divaricatum

by Lima de, José Gustavo

This work describes the phytochemical investigation of extracts from the branch wood andbranch barks of Andira surinamensis (Leguminosae), as well as, the volatile chemicalcomposition of essential oil from leaves and fruits of Piper divaricatum G. Mey (Piperaceae).The phytochemical investigation of A. surinamensis extracts, using classic methods ofchromatography on silica gel, yielded a novel isoflavone dimer, 4?-methoxyisoflavone-(7-O-7??)-3???,4???-methylenedioxyisoflavone (surinamensin), along with the triterpene lupeol and theknown isoflavones 5,7-dihydroxy-4\\\'-methoxyisoflavone (biochanin A), 5,4\\\'-dihydroxy-7-methoxyisoflavone (prunetin), 7,3?-dihydroxy-4?-methoxyisoflavone (calycosin) and 5,7,3?-trihydroxy-4?-methoxyisoflavone (pratensein). The structures of all isolated compounds wereelucidated by spectroscopic methods, such as MS, IR and particularly 1D and 2D homonuclearand heteronuclear NMR spectroscopy and, comparison with published data for closely relatedcompounds. The chemical composition of the essential oils from leaves and fruits of Piperdivaricatum G. Mey., was analyzed by GC/MS and GC-FID. Twenty-four components,representing more than 94.0% of the chemical compositions of the oils, were identified. Both oilsshowed higher concentrations of monoterpenoids, particularly the oils from leaves (81.1%). Theoils showed some compositional similarities but the fruit oil could be easily distinguished fromthe leaf oil by the exclusive presence of a-phellandrene (4.60%), (E)-muurola-4(14),5-diene(9,0%) and significant content of (E)-caryophyllene (11.4%). The major constituents of the leafoils were linalool (23.4%), b-pinene (25.3%) and a-pinene (18.8%), while the fruit oils of thefruits contained b-pinene (18.0%) and a-pinene (17.6%) and (E)-caryophyllene (11.4%) asprevalent compounds.