Occurrence of biflavones in leaves of Caesalpinia pyramidalis specimens

Abstract

The chloroform partition of methanol extract of leaves of Caesalpinia pyramidalis was submitted to different chromatographic procedures which afforded besides agathisflavone and taxifolin, the minor biflavones loniflavone, amentoflavone, 5'-hydroxyamentofavone and podocarpusfavone A. The structures of the compounds were established on the basis of NMR and MS data analysis. Besides, the content of bifavones of different specimens of C. pyramidalis, which are collected in different habitats of the Brazilian semi-arid region, was determinated by LC-APCI-MS analysis. These analysis demonstrated that only the specimens harvested in Bahia state showed collectively the presence of agathisfavone, amentofavone, sequoiafavone and podocarpusfavone A.