Abstract:
Although Senecio species are known as sources of potentially toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs), some species of this genus are traditionally used as remedies. In this work the evaluation of biological activities and the analysis of PAs of Algerian specimens of Senecio delphinifolius Vahl (its vernacular name in Algeria is ""Hachichetettolba"") are reported. Thus it was possible to identify six APs by GC and GC-MS
analysis: (1) senecionine (2) seneciphylline (3) integerrimine (4) senkirkine (5) dehydrosenkirkine and (6)
neosenkirkine, this technique is frequently used for complex mixtures of such compounds. The species S.
delphinifolius, contains 140 ppm of PAs belong to the toxic series (1, 2-unsaturation in the pyrrolizidine cycle and macrocyclic diester), the use of S. delphinifolius should be discouraged in traditional medicine.
Our research has also led to the isolation by conventional purification techniques of three compounds from the n-butanol extract of the specie S. delphinifolius Vahl two of them are glycosylated flavonols, (7) Quercetine 3-O-α-(rhamnopyrannosyl (1-6) glucopyrannose) [rutine], (8) Kaempferol 3,7-di-O-α-Lrhamnopyranoside [Kaempferitin], the third is a derivative of 1, 4-benzoquinone that are common in the genus Senecio (9) 2, 5 Cyclohexadiene-1-acetic acid, 1-methyl-4-oxo, methyl ester. A fourth product was isolated from the dichloromethane extract, the structure is being identified. The structures of the isolated compounds were elucidated through the use of NMR techniques 1D and 2D, mass spectroscopy, UV spectroscopy and acid hydrolysis. (10) Chlorogenic acid was identified by co-chromatography with standards.
