Scaphium macropodum, is a Malaysian medicinal plant known as malva nut (English) or Kembang Semangkuk Jantung (Malaysian). Species of S. Macropodum (Sterculiaceae) grows in tropical rain forests of Malaya, Cambodia, Thailand, Sumatera, and Borneo [1]. The seed forms a large quantity of gelatine which can be used to treat intestinal infections, diarrhoea, throat aches, asthma, dysentery, fever, coughs, inflammation, and urinary illness [2]. Several classes of compounds have been reported from the plants of family Sterculiaceae, including flavonoids, coumarins, alkaloids, terpenoids and cyanogenic glycosides [3]. Up until now, there have been no reports about the chemical constituents of S. macropodum. In this study, the isolation of the chemical constituents from S. macropodum was carried out using standard approaches commonly used in natural products chemistry. Ground, air-dried stem bark was macerated using methanol. The methanolic extract was then subjected to rotary evaporator under reduced pressure to give crude extract. Several chromatographic techniques, i.e. vacuum liquid chromatography (VLC) and radial chromatography (RC) were applied in the separation of the chemical constituents. Three compounds were isolated from the samples. The structures of the isolated compounds were determined using several spectroscopic methods, i.e. UV-Vis, FT-IR, 1D and 2D NMR, and MS. Two triterpenes, lupeol (1) and lupenone (2), and stigmasterol (3) were obtained from the stem bark of S. macropodum.
Acknowledgements: Greatest appreciation to Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research for the GA travel grant, MOHE (RAGS/1/2014/SG01/UITM/4) and Faculty of Applied Sciences for the financial support
Keywords: Sterculiaceae, Scaphium macropodum, lupeol, lupenone, stigmasterol
References:
[1] Kochummen KM. Sterculiaceae. In T. C. Whitmore (Ed.), Tree Flora of Malaya. Kuala Lumpur: Longman; 2012: 2: 353-382
[2] Lim, TK. Edible Medicinal and Non-Medicinal Plants. Dordrecht: Springer.pp; 2012: 189-191
[3] Jalal MAF, Collin HA. Polyphenols of mature plant, seedling and tissue cultures of Theobroma cacao. Phytochem 1977; 16: 1377-1380