Studies On Chemical Constituents Of Polygonum Perfoliatum

The genus Polygonaceae comprising more than 150 species all around the world and they distribute mainly in northern temperate zone. Many of them are used in folk medicine in China. Polygonum perfoliatum L. is one species of them and was recorded in Chinese Phamacopoeia(1977) once. The whole plant of Polygonum perfoliatum L. was used as folk medicine in treating edema, jaundice, dysentery, whooping cough and so on. In recent years, some references showed that P. perfoliatum L. has anticancer activity.In this paper, in oder to obtain the chemical constituents, the dried plant were extracted with 70% EtOH, then the solution was evaporated to dryness under vacuum to give a residue. The residue was repeatedly chromatographed on silica gel, Sephadex LH-20, and so on. Sixteen compounds were obtained and the structures of fifteen of them were elucidated on the basis of chemical and spectroscopic evidences. They were identified as: friedelin(G-1), pentadecanoic acid (G-2),β-sitosterol (G-3), stigmast-4-en-3-one (G-4), daucosterol (G-5), kaempferol(G-6), quercetin (G-7), avicularin (G-8), n-butyl-β-D-fructopyronoside (G-9), quercetin-3-O-β-D-glucuronide (G-10), quercetin-3-O-β-D-glucuronide 6"-methyl ester (G-11), quercetin-3-O-β-D-glucuronide 6"-butyl ester (G-12), kaempferol-3-O-rutinoside (G-13), rutin (G-14) and fructose (G-15). Compound G-1, G-2, G-4, G-8, G-9, G-10, G-13 and G-14 were isolated from this plant for the first time. Compound G-12 was isolated from genus Polygonaceae for the first time.