Isolation and structure elucidation of novel compounds from stem of Dendrophthoe falcata

Dendrophthoe falcata (syn. with Loranthus falcatus) has been widely used in Indian and other traditional medicine systems as a therapeutic herb. Extensive pharmacological studies of leaf and stem extracts of D. falcata have shown significant biological activities. In the present study, an attempt has been made to carry out the phytochemical investigation of the petroleum ether and dichloromethane extract of the stem part of D. falcata, collected from Assam, situated in the eastern part of India, with the purpose of isolating and identifying the possible bioactive phytochemicals of this plant towards the development of new pharmaceutical products. Using repeated coloumn chromatography, preparative TLC and crystallization techniques, ten compounds were isolated in pure form. On the basis of detailed spectral studies they were identified as di-iso-octylphthalate 1, nonadecan-1-ol 2, stigmast-4-en-3-one 3, stigmast-5-en-3β-ol 4, stigmast-5,22-E-dien-3β-ol 5, 3β-hydroxylup-20(29)-en-28-oic acid 6, 3β-hydroxyolean-12-en-28-oic acid 7, 7-hydroxy-4',5,6-trimethoxyflavone 8 , 2,3-dihydro-4-hydroxy-3,6,9-trimethylnaphtho[1,8-bc]pyran-7,8-dione 9 and 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzoic acid 10. Compounds 1,4,5,7 and 10 have previously been reported from Dendrophthoe species. This is the first report of compounds 2,3,6,8 and 9 from Dendrophthoe species and the first report of 8 from natural source. Further research work is needed on these identified compounds to explore their usefulness in phytopharmaceutical products.