Composition of the lipophilic fraction of stinging nettle (Urtica dioica L. and U. urens L.) homeopathic matrix tinctures

Abstract

The composition of lipophilic fractions of homeopathic matrix tinctures of Urtica dioica L. (I) and U. urens L. (II) derived from freshly collected plants and dried (desiccated) material (herb and roots) was studid using GC-MS techniques. The analyses of n-hexane extracts of tincture I revealed 43 compounds (of which 27 were identified) whereas the analysis of the extract of tincture II revealed 28 compounds (21 identified). The extract from I contains fatty acids in the form of ethyl esters, terpenoids (apiol, eugenol), squalene, and some other substances. The main fatty acids are palmitic, linolenic, and nonadecanoic. Tincture of I obtained from a desiccated raw material contains ethyl esters of linoleic and 2,3-benzofurandicarboxylic acids, which are not found in II. Tincture obtained from freshly collected material contains greater amounts of ethyl esters of oleic, 9-oxononanoic, 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzoic acids, 3-ethyl-4-methyl-(1H)-pyrrol-2,5-dione, 5,6,7,7a-tetrahydro-2(4H)-benzofuranone, and eugenol. The extract of tincture II contains significant amounts of palmitic, linoleic, and linolenic acids and 3,7,11,15-tetramethyl-2-hexadecen-1-ol. Some of the identified substances, including ethyl esters of heptadecenoic, arachic, 8,11-eicosadienoic, heneicosanoic, and behenic acids were detected only in the tincture from dried (desiccated) raw material. The lipophilic fraction of matrix tinctures from U. dioica root contain large amounts of linoleic, linolenic, and nonadecanoic acids and their isomers in addition to palmitic, myristic, 9-oxononanoic, and pentadecanoic acids. The content of identified components was greater in the tinctures from freshly collected material (except for squalene, the concentration of which increases by a factor of about four in the tincture prepared from desiccated material). 699 0091-150X/08/4212-0699

Therapeutic Perspectives of Molecules from Urtica dioica Extracts for Cancer Treatment

“…The phytochemical composition investigation on U. dioica [13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28] revealed that it contains phenolic compounds (including flavonoids, tannins, coumarins and lignans), sterols, fatty acids, polysaccharides and isolectins.…”

RAPD-PCR and real-time Pcr Hrm based genetic variation evaluations of <i>Urtica dioica</i> parts, ecotypes and evaluations of morphotypes in Turkey

“…Taxonomy of U. dioica for ethnobotanical, especially complementary and alternative medicinal usages might have some complications due to wide range of habitats, and the heterogeneity of the morphological traits such as phenolic contents and antioxidant capacities of plants. Different parts of the U. dioica contain completely different chemicals which can be extracted in different ways such as the root of the U. dioca contains polysaccharides which are believed to be responsible for its anti-inflammatory effects and unidentified components present in certain aqueous, but not lipophilic extracts and/or similar chemicals with different concentrations in different parts of the same plant (Lapinskaya et al, 2008a(Lapinskaya et al, , 2008b. To overcome various complications and difficulties in diagnosis of this species and to get rid of the need for personal expertise and experiences we designed a set of species specific primers for the U. dioica agglutinin isolectin VII precursor (chia5.7.2) gene, exon 3 (UDA) which encodes UDA protein that is a single-chain peptide found in roots and rhizome of U. dioica (Van Damme and Peumans, 1987) and used it for both molecular diagnostics and further to assess genetic variation using real-time PCR and HRM analysis in combination with universal, conserved chloroplast DNA sequence 16S rRNA gene (5' Brown, 2002).…”