Studies On The Chemical Constituents Of Mangrove Plant Ceriops Tagal Rhizophoraceae.

Mangrove plants are the peculiar plants distribute in the tropics and subtropics along the beach, and have the important zoology and theoretics significance in the balance and system evolution. Mangroves plants are the most important resources of ocean.For the living environment of more salinity and lack of oxygen, Mangrove plants have different metabolism route from the terraneous plants, and have their peculiar types of compounds, many species of the mangrove plants have officinal function. Studies on the chemical constituents of the mangrove plants, maybe can provide lead compounds to exploit new drugs, and have the important economical significance, can favor of the protection and continuable utilization of the mangrove plants. In the past several years, great progress has been achieved on the research of the chemical constituents of the mangrove plants. Plenty of research results showed that ocean and plant had been the most important sources of finding lead compounds.C. tagal is a mangrove plant of family Rhizophoraceae. Mangrove plants of the genus Ceriops (Rhizophoraceae), represented by two species, C. decandra and C. tagal, are widely distributed along the sea coasts of Africa, South Asia and South Pacific islands. Both of the plants are a rich source of tannins and triterpenoids. These plants are used as a folk remedy e. g. against sores. The decoction of the bark of C. tagal was used to treat haemorrhages and malignant ulcers in India. But, C. tagal has not been investigated phytochemically. In continuation of our studies on Chinese mangrove plants, we examined C. tagal (Perr.) collected in the mangrove forest in Hainan Island.Twenty-three compounds were isolated from the petroleum ether portion of the 95% ethanolic extract of the C. tagal. And their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic methods including 1D NMR, 2D NMR, IR and MS experiments astagalsins A-K (1-11), ent-5a-dolabr-4(18)-ene-15S, 16-diol (12), squalene(13), betulinic acid(14), lup- 20(29)- en- 3- on- 28- oic acid(15), betulin(16), lup- 20(29)-en- 3- on- 28- ol (17), β-sitosterol(18), n-hexacosanylferulate(19). All compounds except for 1-11 were isolated from C. tagal for the first time.