Fronds of the fern Microsorum scolopendria are widely used in traditional medicine in the Society Islands. They were investigated for the presence of ecdysteroids, which might be responsible for at least some of their medicinal properties. M. scolopendria represents an excellent source of ecdysone (0.16% of dry weight) and 20-hydroxyecdysone (0.20%), and also contains significant amounts (0.01-0.02%) of makisterones A and C, inokosterone and amarasterone A, together with lower amounts of poststerone and of a compound tentatively identified as 24,28-diepi-cyasterone. During this study, three new minor phytoecdysteroids, namely 20-deoxymakisterone A, a 25(?)-epimer of amarasterone A and 25-deoxyecdysone 22-glucoside were also isolated by a combination of normal- and reversed-phase HPLC and subsequently identified by NMR.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.