Chemical Constituents Of Canscora Lucidissima, An Ethnomedicinal Plant (Gentianaceae)

With the rapid development of isolation and identification technology, natural products research appears to claiming more attention in new drugs research. As an important resource of natural product research, traditional medicinal plants is becoming more and more important. The rich resources of traditional knowledge on medicinal plants accumulated from thousands of years ago in China, it supported great potential for the development of natural products research in our country.Gentianaceae is a family of plants has long history for ethnomedicine with a great effective, it is also a important part in Chinese medicine. Gentianaceae plants are widely used in many areas of different regions. The plants in this families have efficacy of clearing heat and promote dieresis, and they are used to cure cold, cholecystitis, hepatitis, insect and snake bite and multiple diseases by many different nationalities in China. However, with the development of socio-economy and urbanization, the traditional medicinal knowledge is at risk of extinction. Therefore, the survey and collection of the this family plants use is important and urgent. Furthermore, phytochemical and investigation contributes to the development and use of new medicine plants.Based on literature studies, field surveys, we used the many ways like key informant interviews, semi-structured interviews, participatory rural appraisal (PRA), and voucher specimens collection to obtained information on traditional medicinal knowledge of Gentianaceae from local people and prepared a inventory. Through the ethnobotanical investigation, we found that the purpose and medicinal ways of many Gentianaceae plants have local characteristic and also had a long history. Base on the the investigation, we selected the medicinal plant Canscora lucidissima for further chemical constituents analysis. The phytochemical technology (Silica gel chromatography, Sephadex chromatography, HPLC and others methods) was used to isolate the compounds from the extract of this medicinal plant, then found the compounds with bioactivites.Based on the literature studies, we had conducted surveys in three regions including Huangjiang and Jingxi in Guangxi, Libo and Kaili in Guizhou. In total 43 key informants and more than 200 people had been interviewed. We collected the traditional knowledge by 60 species belonging to 12 genus in Gentianaceae, including uses, preparation, medicinal part and one another. We obtained information on traditional uses of the traditional medicinal plants of this family. Using various column chromatography technologies to isolate the 6 xanthones compound from Canscora lucidissma, then the structures were identified by NMR, MS spectrum technologies. Three compounds are simple xanthones, 1-Hydroxy-3,5-dimethoxyxanthone (compound C1); 1,8-dihy-droxy-3,7-dimeth-oxy (compound 2); 1-Hydroxy-3,7,8-Trmethoxyxanth-one (compound 3); and the other three are xanthonesoide, canlucoside A (compound 4), canlucoside B (compound 5), canlucoside C (compound 6). Compound 4-6 were determined as the new compounds, compound 3-6 were isolated from this plant for the first time.This research is the first step towards to record the traditional medicinal knowledge by plants from Gentianaceae. At the same time, the paper shows the chemical compounds and analysis in experiment, to verify its scientificity and rationality of the traditional usage of Canscora lucidissima. In additionally, the research provides the academic reference for the investigation, exploitation and utilization of ethnical medicinal plants.