Notes - Occurnece of Scopoletin in the Genus Brunfelia

Abstract

NOTESvol. 22 dissolved in 6 ml. of chloroform, and agitated overnight with 1 g. of freshly prepared manganese dioxide. The suspension was diluted with warm chloroform, filtered, washed, and concentrated to dryness. The resulting oil had a strong selective absorption around 240 µ, but could not be crystallized even after chromatography. Acetylation in the usual manner, however, gave 127 mg. of Illb, crystallized from hexane, m.p. 144-147°; X"a'x0H at 237 m,u (e = 15,900

Plant polyphenols. 2. The coumarins of Solanum pinnatisectum

“…Flowers of domestic varieties of the cultivated potato do not contain coumarins, although these are present in the tubers, particularly in virusinfected material (Andrea, 1948;Baruah & Swain, 1959). DISCUSSION The presence of three derivatives of 6:7-dihydroxycoumarin (aesculetin) in Solanum pinnatisectum and two other related species is not surprising in view of the fact that aesculin, scopolin and scopoletin have been found severally in other plants of the Solanaceae family (Spath, 1937;Mors & Ribeiro, 1957). However, this is the first time that cichoriin has been found in solanaceous plants.…”

Chemical defence of the warningly coloured caterpillars of Methona themisto (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Ithomiinae)

“…The host plant Brunfelsia uniflora is a Neotropical shrub used as an ornamental (Plowman, 1979) and medicinal plant (Schultes, 1976). This genus of plants is known to contain brunfelsamidine (Lloyd et al, 1985), scopoletine (Mors & Ribeiro, 1957) and calistegines (Bekkouche et al, 2001).…”

Solanaceae Juss.

“…All parts of plants of this genus are probably toxic for all animal species as has been reported for cattle (Tokarnia et al 1991). The fi rst compound was scopoletin (6 -methoxy-7-hydroxycoumarin), or gelseminic acid, a compound subsequently shown to be common in many families, in some cases serving as a phytoallexin to reduce competition from other plants (Mors and Ribeiro 1957;Zeringue 1984). Children are also at considerable risk from eating the fruits.…”