Studies On Chemical Constituents Of Traditional Chinese Medicine D. Indica

Duchesnea indica (Andr.) Focke of genus Duchesnea (Rosaceae family), is a perennial herbaceous plant growing in the hillside, roadside along with the weed. Duchesnea indica is widely distributed in most of China with the Chinese name Shepaocao, Sanpifeng, Shedanguo, Longtuzhu. It has been used to treat diarrhea, enteritis, scald, snakebite furuncle in Chinese traditional medicine. Duchesnea indica has the pharmacological effects of anticancer, anti-bacterial, dephlogisticate , immunity-improving and central nerve-inhibiting. Previous phytochemistry studies undertaken on different part of the plant have resulted in the isolation of many compounds, saccharide, protein, tannin, friedelin, luprol and vitamin E were separated from the ripe fruit, linoleid acid was founded in the seed, triterpenoids, coumarins, flavonoids and steroids were separated from the whole plant. The present studies were undertaken further on the chemical constituents of the plant.The compounds of triterpenoids is the lead-compound in the finding of anticancer compounds from the natural resources according to their strong biological activities. The pentacyclic triterpenoids show most strong anticancer activities in these compounds. The triterpenoids separated from the Duchesnea indica were ursane-type pentacyclic triterpenoids according to previous phytochemistry studied report. In order to find new compounds with strong biological activities, the present studies were undertaken on the chemical constituents of this plant. Eleven compounds were isolated from the plant, including one new pentacyclic triterpenoid and four known pentacyclic triterpenoid. Other compounds isolated were first reported from this plant.The powered and dried herb of Duchesnea indica (3.5 kg) was extracted with 95% ethanol (35 L×3, 6 h each time) under refluxing. The extract was concentrated in vacuo to give a residue (670 g), which was suspended in water, and then partitioned with petroleum ether (60-90 ℃ ), EtOAc and n-BuOH, successively. The P.E.-partitionated extract , EtOAc-partitionated extrac, n-BuOH-partitionated extract were concentrated in vacuo to give the residue, respectively.