Ethnobotanical Leaflets 12: 231-244. 2008.

 

 

Phytochemicals From Genus Diospyros (L.) and their Biological Activities

 

M. Maridass

Animal Health Research Unit

St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous)

Palayamkottai – 627 002, Tamil Nadu, India

E-mail:[email protected], or

[email protected]

 

Issued 11 May 2008

Abstract

   Various constituents isolated and characterized from Diospyros species are described.  These include naphthaquinones, triterpenoids and steroids.  Some notable activities reported from the various part of the plant and from the extract and isolated constituents are antibacterial, antifungal, antiprotozoal, antimolluscocidal, anti-inflammatory and cytotoxicity activity.

Introduction

   Human beings have been influenced in various ways by plants and their products.  Plant parts are used in all branches of medicine such as Allopathy, Homeopathy, Unani and the Ayurvedic system.  The genus Diospyros L. (Ebenaceae), which is distributed throughout the tropics, is characterized by its ability to produce triterpenes of the lupine series (Mariadel, 1995).  The genus Diospyros consists of ca 240 species, 59 of which are distributed in India (Neeru Jain, 1994), Thailand, Japan, Nigeria, South Africa and Philippines.

   In the Philippines the tree D. blancoi is commonly found in forest at low altitudes and is planted along the roadsides for shade.  In the Philippines, it is called  Mabolo Persimmon or Velvet apple.  The taxonomic status of this plant is confusing and it has generally been called D. discolor Willd.  The tree is also used for timber in the Philippines and, according to Burkill 1966, the best hair combs in the Phillipines are made from it.  Diospyros peregrine Gurka (Syn. D. embrypteris Pers; D. malabarica Desr.) is reported to possess many medicinal properties.  The plant has an astringent action and is particularly used for the treatment of diarrhoea and dysentery.  An ether extract of the fruits possesses antibacterial properties, and has also been used for dye making and tanning fishing nets (Anon, 1952; Walt, 1980).  

   The leaves of the African medicinal plant, D. leucomelas, were tested and found to contain the  triterpene components betulin, betulinic acid and ursolic acid.  They showed anti-inflammatory activity in the carrageenan and serotonin, induced paw edema tests and TPA and EPP ear edema tests in mice (Mariadel et al., 1995).

   Another species, D. morrisian,  known as Shan Hung Shig in the herbal medicine of Taiwan has been claimed to possess antibiotic activity (Wu et al., 1972).  The hexane extract of the stem parts of this plant was found to show significant cytotoxicity against in vitro tissue culture cells (Xiu-Zhen Yan et al., 1989).  Several Diospyros species such as                    D. ismailli Ng, D. siamang Bakh.,  D. wallichii Williams, D. toposoides and D. rufa K & G are reported as being effective for curing skin diseases (Burkill, 1966).  The extract of the fresh fruits of D. mollis Griff. are widely used in Thailand as an antihelmintic and a readily oxidizable phenolic component (Loder et al., 1957).  Identified from D. usambarensis root bark were the following components: 7-methljuglone, mamegakinone and isodiospyrin, the latter exhibiting mulluscicidal and antifungal properties (Marston et al., 1984).  D. tricolor Hiern is used in Nigeria as a chewing stick and in various indigenous formulations for leprosy and dysentery (Heyhauer, 1966; Loder et al., 1957).

   The bioactive compounds and biologically active extracts from different Diospyros species have been summarized in Table I and Table II.  The chemical constituents isolated from different plant parts of Diospyros species have been given in the Table III.

Table I. Biological activity of different extracts from Diospyros species.

 

Table II. Biological activity of different compounds from Diospyros species.

 

Table III. Chemical compounds of Diospyros species.

           

   The steam – volatile constituents of D. blancoi A.DC has been studied and 24 components of the oil have been identified by RI, IR and MS spectra.  The major components of the a–farnesene (Collins et al., 1976).

Chemical constituents of Diospyros species

   Different classes of compounds have been isolated from different species.  They are as follows.

   The main components isolated from the Diospyros species are triterpenes and their steroids compounds.

   Dichloromethane extract of D. leucomelos Poir leaves isolated three triterpenes betulin, betulinic acid and ursolic acid were identified by ¹H – and ¹³C-NMR spectra studies (Chopra et al., 1956).

   The chemical composition of the root of D. lotus (L.) was investigated by Yoshihira et al., 1970, the chloroform extract separated in four napthoquinones, 7-methyljugulone, 150 diospyrin, and quinines besides the three tri-terpenoids, taraxerol, betulinic acid and oxallobetulin.

 

 

           
           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   A new triterpene was isolated from the fruits of D. peregrina and its structure elucidated as lup 20(20) – en-3a, 27 diol on the basis of spectral analysis (Jeffreys et al., 1985).  Maridass, 1999 analyzed the chemical composition by the fruit oil of D. malabarica Desr. by capillary GC and GC/MS studies.  More than 35 constituents were isolated of which 29 were identified.  The main constituents of trans methyl isoeugenol (31.86%), b-bisabolene (25.91).

 

Biological activities of Diospyros species

   Fifty percent of extracts of D. peregrina minimum tolerated dose of significant activities of antiprotozoal, antiviral and hypoglycemic activity are reported (Yoshihira et al., 1967).

Antibacterial activity

   Active constituent of Diosquinone was isolated from D. tricolor inhibited against 11 gram-positive bacteria.  Among the gram-positive bacteria active of diosquinone was found to be very active (8.19mm) against Staph aures E₃⁺etc., except S. faecalis and B. cereus (Watt et al., 1980).

Anti-inflammatory activity

   Betulin, betulic acid and ursolic acid were isolated from D. leucomelas.  The three triterpenoids compounds have been found to exert pronounced anti-inflammatory activity against different model of experimental inflammation (Misra et al., 1967).

Cytotoxic activity

   Two cytotoxic compounds isodiospyrin and b-amyrin and in active triterpene, olean-12-3-one have been isolated from D. morrisiana (Collins et al., 1976).

 

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