Studies On The Chemical Constituents And Bioactivities Of The Aerial Parts Of Lepdium Meyenii Walp Cultivated In Jilin Province

Maca（Lepidium meyenii Walp.）is an annual herb of Brassicaceae family.Macahas been cultivated in the Peruvian central Andes,and has been used for centuries inthe Andes for nutrition and to enhance fertility in humans and animals.Experimentalscientific evidence showed that maca has nutritional, energizer, and fertility-enhancerproperties, and it acts on sexual dysfunctions, osteoporosis, benign prostatichyperpasia, memory and learning, and protects skin against ultraviolet radiation.The studies on maca are mostly about the chemical constituents and bioactivitiesof maca root,while aerial parts of maca are seldom.To utilize maca moreeffectively,we studied the chemical constituents and bioactivities of the aerial parts ofmaca.The aqueous extract of aerial parts of maca were extracted further bychloroform,acetic ether and n-butyl alcohol in turn.By using silica gel columnchromatography,C-18reversed-phase column chromatography,HPLC preparation andrecrystallization,TLC,centrifugal thin-layer and re-crystallizing methods, twelvecompounds were obtained.This twelve compounds structures were identified with thechemical and spectral evidences(13C-NMR,1H-NMR,2DNMR、ESI-MS,et al).Theywere uridine（1）、thymidine（2），phenylalanine（3）、Proline（4）、benzyl-O-β-D-glucopyranoside（5）、3-(methoxybenzyl)-O-β-D-glucopyranoside（6）、4-hydroxybenzyl β-D-glucopyranoside（7）、benzoic acid（8）、vanillic acid（9）、nicotinic acid（10）、succinic acid（11） and β-sitosterol（12）respectively，Amongthem Compound5～11were firstly obtained from the the aerial parts of maca.To research the bioactivities of the aerial parts of maca,we test the sexualbehavior of aged male rats after22days treatment by the aerial parts of maca.And wefound that the aerial parts of maca can improve the sexual behavior of aged malerats,increase the male hormone level and the content and activity of monoamineneurotransmitter in rats′hypoyhalaus.At the same time we also do a preliminarystudy of the effective dose of aerial parts of maca.