Study On Coumarin Constituents From Stellera Chamaejasme L.

Stellera chamaejasme L·is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine and has drawn a lot of attention from home and overseas scholars for its roots have obvious effect on cancers, bacteria and insects. This paper conducts a thorough and systematical study into the main chemical constituents of coumarins found in dried roots of Stellera chamaejasme L·, and by tracking its activity does tentative research into its constituent which shows piscicidal activity. Stellera chamaejasme L.'s roots had been pretested systematically by means of tube-test and thin layer chromatography (TLC). The results showed that main constituents were flavanone, lactone, coumarin, steroid, terpenoid, carbohydrate; saponin, cardiac glycosid, amino acid, protein, and volatile oil were possible constituents; thraquinone, and alkaloid were excluded. The shattered root of Stellera chamaejasme L. was extracted with ethyl acetate through ultrasonic extraction, and then the crude extract was concentrated through decompression. Its extractive was dissolved with acetone (1:30) which was then filtrated. And the filtrate was isolated through neutral aluminum oxide column chromatography and divided into three sections A, B and C. Coumarin of section A was isolated through silica gel column chromatography and Sephadex LH-20 repeatedly. Three compounds were obtained from section A marked as L1(13 mg),L2(25 mg) and L4(37mg). Section B was isolated by tracking its piscicidal activity. It was firstly isolated through silica gel column chromatography, and then what was produced was divided into three parts marked as F1, F2 and F3, which were tested to determine for piscicidal activity. Part F1, which was found to be active, was isolated, and obtained were five compounds L5 (34 mg), L6 (47 mg), L7 (83 mg), L8 (68 mg) and L9 (which had been isolated and identified as umbelliferone). Finally, L7 among the five was determined to have strong piscicidal activity by employing the same approach. Seven compounds were obtained by isolating sections A and B, two of which, L7 and L8, were identified as scopoletin and daphnoretin respectively through chemical reactions and spectral means. It's concluded that scopoletin has strong piscicidal activity from the results of bioactivity tests.