Study On The Chemical Constituents Of Litsea Cubeba

Litsea cubeba(Lauraceae),possessing warm nature,spicy and slightly bitter taste,and exhibiting efficacy of warming spleen and stomach for dispelling cold,removing blood stasis detumescence,and promoting qi circulation to relieve pain,has long been used as a folk medicine for the treatment of fever,abdominal pain and diarrhea,vomiting and diarrhea,heart and stomach cold pain,athlete's foot,pregnant edema,bruises,rheumatism and thrombosis formation.Its fruit,also known as Bichengqie,has been recorded in Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2010 Edition.Since the injection of L.cubeba has clinically applied to treatment of cerebral thrombosis,its bioactive constituents and action mechanism are still unclear.The present research is to investigate the chemical constituents of L.cubeba.Column chromatography over silica gel and Sephadex LH-20,ODS MPLC,preparative TLC,and preparative HPLC were developed to isolate the constituents of the EtOH extract of the twigs of L.cubeba,and the structures of the isolates were determined by UV,CD,IR,MS,1D and 2D NMR spectroscopic techniques,as well as chemical methods.As a result,twenty three compounds attributed to sesquiterpenes,lignans,phenylethanoid glycosides,and other aromatic compounds were obtained.Among them,three compounds are new,and the remained compounds were obtained from this plant for the first time.This research not only enriches the chemical constituents of L.cubeba,but also provides the basic substances for the quality evaluation of L.cubeba and its preparations.