Chemical Constituents from the Seeds of Amorpha fruticosa and Their Chemotaxonomic Significance

Abstract

Seventeen compounds, including six rotenoids (1-6), seven isoflavones (7-13), one stilbene (14) and three benzoic acid derivatives (15-17) were isolated from the seeds of Amorpha fruticosa. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic methods and by comparison of their reported spectral data. Among them, compound 4 was firstly purified as a natural product, compounds 5, 8 - 12 and 15 - 17 were isolated from the genus Amorpha for the first time, and compound 17 was obtained from the Fabaceae family initially. The presence of these compounds suggests that genus Amorpha and Dalbergia may have very close chemotaxonomic relationship, and shows the relationship between this plant and other species from the Fabaceae family.