Anchusa , comprised of approximately 35 species mainly distributed along the Mediterranean coast and Africa, Europe and western Asia, is one of the major genera of the family Boraginaceae. Some species in Anchusa are used as a folk medicine in different countries for a variety of ailments including wound healing, as a diuretic, and as a sedative. In previous reports, triterpenes and triterpene glycosides, flavonoids, alkaloids and phenolic acids have been isolated from species in this genus. Reported bioactivities, such as anticancer and antioxidant effects, also makes it an attractive target for further investigation. In the present work, a number of flavonoids, flavonoid glycosides, phenylpropanoids, phenylpropanoid amides and monoterpenes have been isolated from the methanol extract of a sample of the entire plant of Anchusa azurea Mill. from Armenia. Several of these constituents have been isolated for the first time from the genus Anchusa and the family Boraginaceae. The structures were elucidated by 1D and 2D homonuclear and heteronuclear NMR spectroscopy and by comparison with closely related compounds published previously.
Keywords: phytochemistry, Boraginaceae, Anchusa azurea , flavonoid glycosides, 2D NMR.
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