Study On Gentiana Crassicaulis Duthie Ex Burk And The Alkaloids From It

Radix Gentianae Macrophyllae is derived from the Gentiana species such as Gentiana macrophylla Pall., G. crassicaulis Duthie ex Burk., G. straminea Maxim., or G. dahurica Fisch.. Radix Gentianae Macrophyllae is quite frequently used for the treatment of rheumatism, pain, fungal and bacterial infections, hepatitis and hypertension. It is distributed over Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, and Shanxi. The Chinese crude drug "Qinjiao" which was reported in "Sichuan Zhong Yao Zhi" and the commodity "Luobojiqo" in Sichuan market both come from the roots of G. crassicaulis Duthie ex Burk.,Radix Gentianae Macrophyllae mainly contains secoiridoide glycoside, sterol glycoside, Volatile oil and carbohydrate. Previous research revealed that secoiridoide glycosides were transformed to alkaloids due to the presence of amine in the isolation process. The alkaloids have depressive effects on rheumatism, pain, fungal and bacterial infections as same as Radix Gentianae Macrophyllae. Previous researchs on G. macrophylla Pall, are far more than G.crassicaulis Duthie ex Burk..In this paper, the pharmacognostical studies on G. crassicaulis Duthie ex Burk. are reported, including external structures and morphological characters .10 components first time were extracted with amine and isolated from roots of G. crassicaulis Duthie ex Burk.. The structures of 8 alkaloids have been established to be gentianine, gentianal, gentiatibetine, gentiocrasine, gentiocrasidine, daucosterol, p-sitosterol and plamitic acid by spectroscopic analysis('H-NMR, I3C-NMR, DEPT, ESIMS, IR, UV)and chemical evidence respectively, gentiocrasine and gentiocrasidine was isolated for the first time.Gentianine and gentianal are the major biologically active alkaloids in Radix Gentianae Macrophyllae, and gentiopicroside is the major biologically active component in it. The content of total alkaloids was determined by silicoduo-decitungstic acid titration. The result is G. macrophylla Pall>G. crassicaulis Duthie ex Burk. >G. straminea Maxim. .An RP-HPLC assay was developed for determining gentianine, gentianal and gentiopicroside. The sensitive and specific assay was successfully utilized to quantify the 3 biologically active components. The result is gentiopicroside >gentianine>gentianal. in several Gentiana species.