Study Of The Chemical Composition Of Jatropha Bark

Jatropha curcas L., is a soft-wooded shrub belonging to the family of Euphorbiaceae, generally grows in rural areas in Latin America, Asia, and Africa countries, it mainly grown in Guizhou, Fujian, Sichuan, Guangdong, Guanggxi, and Xunnan provinces of China. Jatropha curcas L. is an important kind of traditional Chinese medicinal materials. It is well known for its medicinal values. Therefore, it is also used traditionally for the treatment of sciatica, dropsy, rheumatism, diarrhea and certain skin diseases. Early researchers have reported the isolation of several diterpenoids, some triterpene, coumarin and flavone derivatives. Some of these compounds possess antimicrobial and antitumour activities.Nineteen compounds were isolated from the ethanol extract of the barks of Jatropha curcas L.. Chemical structures of seventeen compounds were confirmed by determining physico-chemical constants and also by IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR and mass spectra. The compounds were identified as 4, 14-dimethyl-heptadecane (1), hexacos-anoic acid methylester (2), methyl triacontanoate (3), curcusone A (4), curcusone B (5),β-sitosterol (6), acetylethyloleanolanoate (7), taraxerol (8), taraxasterol (9), pse-udotaraxasterol (10), jatropholone A (11), jatropholone B (12), 6-methoxy-7-hydroxy courmarin (13), 3,3 ,4-tri-methoxylellagic acid (14), daucosterol (15), oleanolic acid (16), sucrose (17). Among them, compound 1,2,3, 7,9,10 and 17 were isolated from this plant for the first time.