Identification of Chemical Constituents of Artocarpus odoratissimus from Sarawak

Abstract

Artocarpus species contain a high concentration of phenolic compounds, such as flavonoids, stilbenoids, and arylbenzofurons. Furthermore, compounds from Artocarpus species demonstrated antibacterial, antitubercular, antiviral, antifungal, antiplatelet, antiarthritic, tyrosinase inhibitory, and cytotoxic properties. However, there has been no phytochemical research on Artocarpus odoratissimus from Sarawak. As a result, it would be intriguing to create a chemical profile of such Sarawakian species. Various chromatographic methods, including liquid vacuum chromatography, radial chromatography, and column chromatography, were used to isolate the chemical constituents of Artocarpus odoratissimus' root, bark, and leaves. The leaves can also be used to heal ulcers and burn.  The isolation and purification using different solvents system ratio of hexane and ethyl acetate (10:0, 8:2, 6:4, 4:6, 2:8, 0:10) and ethyl acetate and methanol (8:2) have led to two flavonoids; pinocembrin (1) and pinostrobin (2), and six triterpenoids; \(\alpha\)-amyrin acetate (3), \(\beta\)-amyrin acetate (4), traxateryl acetate (5), hexyl dodecanoate (6), \(\beta\)-sitosterol (7) and stigmasterol (8). The structures (1) – (8) were elucidated using various spectroscopic analyses, which included Mass Spectroscopy (MS), Infrared (IR) spectroscopy, Ultra-violet (UV) spectroscopy and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, as well as by comparison with the reported data. Although the presence of compounds 1 and 2 was prevalent across a wide range of plant species, it was rare in Artocarpus species, which may have chemotaxonomic implications for the genus Artocarpus.