Chemical Constituents from the Seeds of Cerbera Manghas 1
Part I Chemical Constituents from the Seeds of Cerbera manghas 1 CHAPTER 1.1 INTRODUCTION 1.1.1 Introduction Cerbera manghas Linn., a mangrove plant belonging to the Apocynaceae family, is distributed widely in the coastal areas of Southeast Asia and countries surrounding the Indian Ocean. The Apocynaceae family contains about 155 genus and 1700 species. In Thailand only 42 genus and 125 species are found, from Cerbera genera only 2 species are found, C. manghas and C. odollam (The Forest Herbarium, Royal Forest Department, 1999). C. manghas was found in Prachuap Khiri Khan, Chonburi, Rayong, Phuket, Songkhla, Satun and Narathiwat while C. odollam was found in Bangkok, Ranong, Surat Thani, Phangga, Krabi, Satun and Narathiwat Cerbera manghas is a small tree, 4 - 6 m tall, stem soft, glabrous with milky juice, leaves alternate, closely set or whorled at the apices of branchlets, 10 -15 x 3 - 5 cm, ovate-oblong or oblaceolate, acuminate at apex, rounded at base, flowers large, bracteate, 3 - 4 cm long, arranged in terminal paniculate cyme, funnel shaped, white with yellow throat, turning purple or red on ageing, fruit large, 7 - 9 x 4 - 6 cm, globose, ovoid or ellipsoid, drupaceous with fibrous pericarp, seeds 1 -2 , each 2 - 2.5 cm across, broad, compressed, fibrous. 1 2 Figure 1 Cerbera manghas (Apocynaceae) 3 1.1.2 Review of literatures Plants in the Cerbera genus (Apocynaceae) are well known to be rich in a variety of compounds: cardenolide glycosides (Abe, et.al., 1977; Yamauchi, 1987); lignan (Abe, et.al., 1988; 1989); iridoid monoterpenes (Abe, et.al., 1977; Yamauchi, et.al.,1990) normonoterpene glycosides (Abe, et.al., 1988; 1996) and dinormonoterpeniod glycosides (Abe, et.al., 1996) etc.
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