(+)-Syringaresinol Lignan from New Species <i>Magnolia Thailandica</i>

Problem statement: Magnolia, an ancient genus, is a large genus of about 210 flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. Having evolved before bees appeared, the flowers developed to encourage pollination by beetles. Members of this family are rich in a wide variety of biological active compounds including lignans. Magnolia thailandica, a new species for Thailand and world, has not been studied chemical composition. The present study described a phytochemical study of twigs of M. thailandica. Approach: In order to identifying natural product compounds for medicinal use, M. thailandica endimic to grow in Thailand was studied. It is shown that this plant is excellent sources of raw material for investigation lignan such as syringaresinol. Thus, the conducted research that we conducted on the above M. thailandica consisted of two steps: (1) establishing a methodology for isolation and purification of lignan compound, (2) identification of the compound using UV, MS, IR and a combination of 1D and 2D NMR spectral analysis. Results: The constituents of dichloromethane: methanol extract of M. thailandica has been investigated. We isolated and identified one bis-tetrahydrofuran-type, syringaresinol lignan derivative. The structure of this compound was elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic evidence. Conclusion: Studies on dichloromethane: methanol extract of M. thailandica has now resulted the isolation and structural characterization of syringaresinol. However, no phytochemical study has been carried out on this species.