Studies On The Botanical Origins And Qualities Of Pine Leaves

Through investigations on the ancient herbal documents and the current botanical origins,it is concluded that 10 species are used as pine leaves,including 4 species produced in Sichuan province. The records in ancient herbal compendiums comply with the current botanical origins of pine leaves.Comparative studies on botanical,morphological and histological characteristics of Pinus massoniana Lamb.,P yunnanensis Franch.,P. armandi Franch and P.tabulaeformis Carr. were conducted. The results show that all the 4 species of pine leaves have a specific transportation tissue. These 4 species are different from each other by their morphological and histological characteristics. The histological descriptions of P. armandi Franch in Chinese Herbal Compendium (zhong hua ben cao) are different form our observations and the descriptions in Chinese Flora and Sichuan Flora in the aspects of the shape of the transverse section and the number of vascular bundles.By means of GC-MS,qualitative and quantitative analysis of the essential oils obtained from different species,different production areas and different extracting methods were carried out. The chemical components and their contents of the essential oils vary by the species,production area and extracting method. This indicates that the quality of pine leaves is related to their species,production areas and extracting methods.Bioactivity guided extraction and isolation of the effective parts of pine leaves was conducted. A new compound has been isolated from the reddish-brown aqueous extraction of Pinus massoniana Lamb.. Through spectrum analysis,its molecular formula is determined as C2oH32O3. The further structural identification of this compound is in progress. Meanwhile,quercetin has been isolated and its content determined by HPLC. The result shows that the content of quercetin in Pinus massoniana Lamb,is 0.0013%.Quantitative analysis of the total flavones in Pinus massoniana Lamb,was conducted by means of Ultraviolet Spectrophotometry. The result shows that the content of total flavones is 0.0885%.In conclusion,through the comprehensive studies on thebotanical,morphological,histological and phytochemical aspects,this project has laid a solid basis on the quality evaluation and further development of pine leaves.It is this paper that first reported the GC-MS analysis of the essential oils obtained from P.armandi Franch and flavonoids compounds in Pinus massoniana Lamb..