The Malaysian Journal of Analytical Sciences Vol 14 No 1 (2010): 6 – 11

 

 

 

CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS FROM TWO WEED SPECIES OF SPERMACOCE (RUBIACEAE)

 

Neoh Bee Keat¹, Rahayu Utami Umar², Nordin Haji Lajis², Tai Yuen Chen², Tu Yen Li²,

 Mawardi Rahmani²,  Mohd. Aspollah Sukari^2*

 

¹Sime Darby Technology Centre, 2, Jalan Tandang, 46050 Petaling Jaya, Selangor

²Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

 

*Corresponding author : aspollah@science.upm.edu.my

 

Abstract

Spermacoce articularis and Spermacoce exilis are weeds commonly growing in wastelands but widely used as traditional medicines. The separation works on the two plant species had been carried out using various solvents and chromatographic methods. The structures of the isolated compounds were determined by using spectroscopic methods such as IR, MS, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, 2D-NMR and by comparison with the data reported previously. Extracts from Spermacoce articularis gave two compounds, identified as ursolic acid (1) and stigmasterol, while extracts from Spermacoce exilis yielded four compounds, ursolic acid (1), benzo[g]isoquinoline-5,10-dione (2), stigmasterol and hexadecanoic acid (3). There was no previous phytochemical investigation on Spermacoce exilis.

 

Keywords : weed; Spermacoce; Rubiaceae; ursolic acid

 

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