*Corresponding author. Fax:#20-2-337-6931.
Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 28 (2000) 915}917
The
#
avonoids of four
Pistacia
species in Egypt
S.A. Kawashty, S.A.M. Mosharrafa
*
, M. El-Gibali, N.A.M. Saleh
Phytochemistry and Plant Systematics Department National Research Center, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt
Received 11 August 1999; received in revised form 27 September 1999; accepted 15 November 1999
Keywords: Pistacia; Anacardiaceae; Flavonoids; Chemosystematics
1. Subject and source
Fresh material (aerial parts, leaves and stems) was collected when possible, collec-tion data (place, date and collector) are outlined and an asterisk indicates a herbarium sample. Samples were identi"ed by M.El-Gibali, and voucher specimen are deposited at the Herbarium (CAIRC) of the National Research Center, or that of the Faculty of Science, Cairo University (CAI). P. atlantica Desf.: (1) North Sinai, 10.8.1996, El-Gibali and Saleh. (CAIRC). (2)*Plant island, Aswan, 14.4.1964, El-Mahdi s.n. (CAI).
(3)*Zoological garden, Giza, 3.6.1968 El-Mahdi s.n. (CAI). P. chinensis Bge.: (1)
Zoological garden, Giza, 14.10.98, Kawashty (CAIRC).P. khinjukStocks: (1) Wadi Talah, South Sinai, 2.9.97, El-Gibali (CAIRC). (2)*Gebel shenelodai, Gebel Elba area,
10.2.62 V. Taeckholm et. al., 1983 (CAI). (3)*Wadi Haikwal, Gebel Elba area,
23.10.1956 Boulos (CAI). P. lentiscus L.: (1) Zoological garden, Giza, 14.10.98, Kawashty (CAIRC).
2. Previous work
The genusPistaciaL. belongs to the family Anacardiaceae.Pistaciaverahas been
reported to contain cyanidin-3-galactoside (Bouguet, 1921), while dihydroquercetin, taxifolin, distylin,"setin and naringenin were reported fromPistacia chinensis(Keys, 1976). Little is known about the chemistry ofP. atlantica,P. khinjukandP. lentiscus.
Table 1
Distribution of#avonoids in investigatedPistaciaspecies!
Species Sample K-3-G Q-3-G Q-3-Gal Q-3-Rut Q-3-G-7-Gal Myr-3-G Myr-3-Gal Myr-3-Rut Vicenin-2
Pistacia 1 # ### ## # # * * * ##
atlantica 2 # ### ## # # * * * ##
3 # ### ## # # * * * ##
Pistacia chinensis
1 ## ### * * * * * #
Pistacia 1 * ## ## * ### ### ### *
khinjuk 2 ## ## * ## ## ### *
3 # # * ## ## ### *
Pistacia lentiscus
1 # ### # * # * * #
!Note: K-3-G"Kaempferol-3-glucoside; Q-3-G"quercetin-3-glucoside; Q-3-Gal"quercetin-3-galactoside; Q-3-Rut"quercetin-3-rutinoside; Q-3-G-7-Gal"quercetin-3-glucoside-7-galactoside; My-3-G"myricetin-3-glucoside; My-3-Gal"myricetin-3-galactoside; My-3-Rut"myricetin-3-rutinoside.
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3. Present study
The fresh material was extracted with 70% ethyl alcohol (3 times). The extracts were concentrated and separated on polyamide columns (SC6- Macherey Nagel) using water as a solvent followed by increasing concentrations of ethyl alcohol. Flavonoid glycoside fractions were puri"ed by using elution techniques on Whatman 3MM paper followed by puri"cation on Sephadex LH-20 columns. Standard methods of identi"cation were followed (Harborne, 1967; Mabry et al., 1970; Markham, 1982). These included complete and partial acid hydrolysis, hydrogen peroxide oxidation, enzymatic hydrolysis, co-chromatography with authentic samples, UV spectro-photometry and nuclear magnetic resonance measurements.
Nine#avonoid glycosides were isolated from the aerial parts of the fourPistacia
species. The glycosides were identi"ed as kaempferol-3-glucoside, quercetin-3-gluco-side, quercetin-3-galactoside, quercetin-3-rutinoside, quercetin-7-galactoside, apigenin-6,8-di-C-glucoside(vicenin 2), myricetin-3-glucoside, myricetin-3-galactoside and myricetin-3-rutinoside (Table 1).
4. Chemotaxonomic signi5cance
Pistacia khinjuk, a shrub or a small deciduous tree is widely distributed in Egypt(Sinai), North Iraq, Iran and eastwards to Kashmir. The collected material from the southern mountains of Sinai belongs toP. khinjuk. As the only evergreen member of the genusPistacia, it stands unique in its#avonoid composition as compared to the other three species investigated, in having three myricetin glycosides as its major glycosides. The other three species contained quercetin 3-glucoside as their major glycoside.
References
Bouguet, J., 1921. Matiere Medicale Indigene de l'Afrique du Nord. Bull. Soc. Pharmacol. 28, 22}36. Harborne, J.B., 1967. In: Harborne, J.B. (Ed.), Comparative Biochemistry of Flavonoids. Academic Press,
London.
Keys, J.D., 1976. Chinese Herbs, their Botany, Chemistry and Pharmacodynamics. Charles E. Tuttle Company; Rutland.
Mabry, T.J., Markham, K.R., Tomas, M.B., 1970. The Systematic Identi"cation of Flavonoids. Springer, Berlin.
Markham, K.R., 1982. Technique of Flavonoid Identi"cation. Academic Press, London.
