Chinese Herbs Index Articles & Resources

Plant Name

Anthemis altissima L. var altissima (syn. A. cofa L. var. brevicuspidata Eig., A. eoia L. var. longicuspidata Eig.), Conyza canadensis (L.) Cronq. (syn. Erigeron canadensis L.) Grrmtia aucheri Boiss. Compositae family (I).

Source

The leaves and flowers of Anthemis altissima and the aerial parts of Conyza canadensis and Grantia aucheri were harvested at flowering stage around Kerman, Province of Kerman, Iran, in June 2000. Voucher specimens (numbers 711, 2061 and 3619, respectively) have been deposited at the Herbarium of the Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands (TARI), Tehran, Iran.

Plant Part

The leaves and flowers of Anthemis altissima, and the aerial parts of Conyza canadensis and Grantia aucheri were separately subjected to hydrodistillation using a Clevenger-type apparatus for 3 h. After decanting and drying of the oils on anhydrous sodium sulfate, the corresponding oils were isolated in yield of %, % and % (w/w), respectively.

Previous Work

The genus Anthemis, which comprises ca. 130 species, is a floral element of the Mediterranean, but some species are also found in southwest Asia and South Africa. There are 39 species growing wild in Iran, among which 15 are endemic (1). The composition of the oils and extracts of different Anthemis species has been the subject of previous studies. A description with yields and constituents of essential oils produced at different times during the summer of 1930 from wild plants (including A. altissima) of the central region of the Gissar Mountains has been reported (2). Oligosides of m-hydroxymandelonitrile and alkene have been reported from A. altissima (3). The nonpolar fractions of A. altissima yielded three steroids and a saturated hydrocarbon (4).

Two species of the genus Conyza are found in Iran: C. canadensis (L.) Cronq. and C. bonariensis (L.) Cronq. (1). The whole herb of C. canadensis is used in China as folk medicine. It's decoction could inhibit the growth of bacteria. The oil can prevent allergic diarrhea of children to cow milk. It can also inhibit the growth of common mold (5). Limonene (%), β-bisabolene (.%) and isofarnesen (%) have been reported from the oil of C. canadensis as major components with Chinese origin (5).

Foliage of Horseweed (C. canadensis) was collected from a fencerow near Presser, Washington, in August 1972. It contained % of pungent oil on a fresh waste basis. Of the 12 components identified in the oil by analytical gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, limonene was by far the most abundant. Matricaria methyl ester constituted about 20% of the oil and was identified from high resolution mass spectrometry, infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance data (6).

Hrutfiord et al. reported the presence of 25 compounds in the American oil, the major one was limonene (%) and (Z,Z)-matricariaester (%) (7). Miymiasawa et al. identified 47 volatile constituents of the Japanese oil with limouene (%),camphene (%) andgermacrene D (%) as the major compounds (8). A. Lis and J. Gora found more than 50 components from the oil of C. canadensis. The plant was collected near Lodz in Poland in July 1996 when it was at flowering stage. The main components were limonene (70%) and trans-OL-bergamotene (7%) (9). Composition of the oil of C. canadensis from India, was previously reported to contain germacrene D and β-caryophyllene as major components (10).

The genus Grantia is represented in the flora of Iran by three species including two endemics. These are G. arachnoidea and G. discoidea (1).

Our study deals with the analysis of the volatile oil isolated from Anthemis altissima L. var. altissima, Conyza canadensis (L.) Cronq. and Grantia aucheri Boiss. grown wild in Iran.

Present Work

The oils were analyzed by GC/MS using a HewlettPackard 5973 mass selective detector connected with an HP 6890 gas Chromatograph. The separation was achieved by using a (60 m × mm, film thickness µm) capillary column, HP-5MS (5% phenylmethylpolysiloxane). The column temperature was kept at 60°C for 3 min and programmed to 220°C at a rate of 6°C/min, and kept constant at 220°C for 3 min. Helium was used as the carrier gas with a flow rate of 1 mL/min. MS taken at 70 eV. Identification of the constituents was made by comparing their mass spectra and retention indices (RI) with those given in the literature and those of authentic samples (11). Relative percentage amounts were calculated from TIC by computer. The compounds identified in the oil of leaf and flower of Anthémis altissima, aerial parts of Conyza canadensis and Grantia aucheri are listed in Tables I, II and III, respectively.

Acknowledgment

We are grateful V. Mozaffarian for identifying the plant materials.

References

1. V. Mozaffarian, A Dictionary of Iranian Plant Names. Farhang Moaser, Tehran (1996).

2. S. Kudryashev, Essential oils from wild plants of the ceniral region of the Gissar Mountains. Parfums de France, 12, 98-101 (1932).

3. . Fikenscher, R. Hegnauerand . Ruisgrok, The distribution of hydrocianic acid in cormophytes. Observations on cyanogensis in Compositee. Plant Med., 40, 202-211 (1980).

4. .Oksuz, Compounds obtained from Anthemis altissima L. Chim. ActaTurc., 6, 45-49 (1978).

5. L-F. Zhu, Y-H. Li, B-L. Li, B-Y. Lu and W-L. Zhang, Aromatic Plants and essential constituents. Supplement. South China Institue Botany, Chinese Acad, Sciences, Hai Feng Publ. Co., Peace Book Co. Hong Kong (1995).

6. . Ogg, Jr., DJ. Stern, RJ. Molyneux and R. Teramishi, Chemical constituents of Horseweed oil. Int. Flav. Food Addit., 6(3) 195-198 (1975).

7. . Hrutfiord, . Hatheway and . Smith, Essential oil of Conyza canadensis. Phytochemistry, 27, 1858-1860 (1988).

8. M. Miyazawa, K. Yamamoto and H. Kameoka, The essential oil of Erigern canadensis L, J. Essent oil Res., 4, 227-230 (1992).

9. A. Lis and J. Gora, Essential oil of Conyza canadensis (L.) Cronq. J. Essent. oil Res., 12, 781-783 (2000).

10. L. Jirovetz, C. Puschman, G. Buchbauer, W. Fleischhacker and . Kaul, Essential oil analysis of Erigeron canadensis flowers from India usingGC/FID, GC/MS and olfactomerty. Sei. Pharm., 67,89-95 (1999).

11. . Adams, Identification of Essential oil Compounds by Gas Chromatography/MassSpectroscopy. Allured Publ. Corp., Carol Stream, IL (1995).

Abdolhossein Rustaiyan,* Parvis Aberoomand Azar and Mehran Moradalizadeh

Department of Chemistry, Science and Research Campus, Islamic Azad University, PO Box 14515-775, Tehran, Iran

Shiva Masoudi and Nazak Ameri

Department of Organic Chemistry and Medicinal Plants, Institute of Pure and Applied Science, Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran

* Address for correspondence

Received : April 2002

Revised : August 2002

Accepted : October 2002

0410 -2905/04/00060 -0579$/00 -©2004 Allured Publishing Corp.