Alkaloids and volatile constituents from the stem of Fusaea longifolia (Aubl.) Saff. (Annonaceae)

Abstract

A phytochemical study of the ethanol extract and an extraction of the volatile compounds, performed by means of Clevenger apparatus were carried out with the stem of Fusaea longifolia (Aubl.) Saff. (Annonaceae). The ethanol extract yielded O-methylmoschatoline, isolated for the fi rst time in this species, and stepholidine, reported for the fi rst time in genus Fusaea. The structural identifi cation of the alkaloids was made based on the analysis of their NMR spectra. Through the use of GC and GC-MS, two sesquiterpenoids, α-cadinol (12.5%) and spatulenol (12.0%) were identifi ed as the major constituents of the essential oil. Keywords: Fusaea longifolia, Annonaceae, alkaloids, volatile constituents. INTRODUCTION The family Annonaceae, created by Jussieu in 1789 (Hutchinson, 1973), is comprised by 2.300 species distributed in approximately 130 pantropical genera (Maas et al., 2001). The plants of this family are trees and some times climbing plants are also possible to be found (Hegnauer, 1964). Besides their fruits being most of them edible, the plants are also very used in the folk medicine (Correa, 1984). Circa 170 alkaloids of the types isoquinoline, protoberberine, aporphine and others were isolated from different genera of the Annonaceae (Leboeuf et al., 1982). From the genus Fusaea, comprised by four species commonly found in the Amazon region (Brummitt, 1992), alkaloids of the types aporphine and oxoaporphine were isolated. The species Fusaea longifolia (synonyms: Annona longifolia Aubl., A. rhombipetala Ruiz & Pav. ex G. Don, Duguetia longifolia (Aubl.) Baill., Fusaea decurrens R. E. Fr.), popularly known in Northern Brazil as “envira”, “envireira” is a bush or small tree found in the Brazilian states of Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Maranhão, Mato Grosso and Pará (Chatrou, 1998). A previous phytochemical study with this species reported the occurrence of a mixture constituted by β-sitosterol and stigmasterol and the alkaloids fuseine and liriodenine (Braz-Filho et al., 1976). The present study reports the isolation of the alkaloids stepholidine (1) and O- methylmoschatoline (2), as well as the analysis of the composition of the essential oil from the stem of this species. MATERIAL AND MET