Steroids from poison hemlock (Conium maculatum L.): A GC-MS analysis

Abstract

The steroid content of Conium maculatum L. (poison hemlock), Apiaceae, a well-known weed plant species, was studied herein for the first time. This was achieved by detailed GC-MS analyses of twenty two samples (dichloromethane extracts of different plant organs of C. maculatum at three or four different stages of phenological development, collected from three locations). In total, twenty four different steroids were identified. Six steroids had an ergostane nucleus while the other ones possessed a stigmastane carbon framework. The identity of these compounds was determined by spectral means (MS fragmentation), GC co-injections with authentic standards and chemical transformation (silylation). Steroid compounds were noted to be the main chemical constituents of root extracts (up to 70 %) of this plant species in the last phase of development. The predominant ones were stigmasta-5,22-dien-3β-ol (stigmasterol) and stigmast-5-en-3β-ol (β-sitosterol). In an attempt to classify the samples, principal component analysis (PCA) and agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) were performed using steroid percentages as variables.