Pharmacognostical and phytochemical studies of flowers from Talipariti elatum S.w
Abstract
The flowers of Talipariti elatum, commonly named Blue Mahoe is used as antasthmatic and expectorant in phytotherapy, although the plants’ composition has not been determined in detail so far. Hence, the pharmacognostic and phytochemical investigations on Talipariti elatum S.w has been carried out in this research, for the development and utilization of the promising medicinal plant. The characteristic physicochemical values like total ashes (10.48 %), water soluble ashes (8.5 %), moisture content (10.85%) and extractable matterin ethanol (33,68 %). The ethanolic extract mainly contained flavonoids in the flowers, also contained triterpens and steroids, amino acids, tannins, anthocyanidins and absence of alkaloids, coumarins, saponins, quinones and cardiotonic glycosides.
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Introduction
Talipariti elatum S.w Fryxell (Malvaceae), a tree with a wide distribution in Cuba, that growth in any type of soil particularly in swanpyones. It can get about 25 m of height (Fig. 1). It shows peciolated leaves, to mentose-velvet like and heartshaped at the basis (Fig. 2). The flowers are big, yellow flower leaves that become reddish when old (Fig. 3). The flowers are used as appetitive, emollient, sudorific and as excellent pectoral combined with the flowers of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis. The mixture is used in traditional medicine as expectorant and antasthmatic (Roig, 1988). It is reported that flowers of T. elatum contains flavonoids (quercetin and rutin), sugars, phenols and tannins, triterpens and steroids and saponins (Acosta & Rodríguez, 2006).
The flower of the plant is an important source of bioactive compounds, such as organic acids, phytosterols, and polyphenols, some of them with antioxidant properties. The phenolic content in the flowers mainly consists of flavonoids like gossypitrin, rutin and quercetin and besides the known flavonoid gossypitrin; the presence of more than 40 different kinds of chemical compounds such as β-sitosterol, γ-sitosterol, red anthocyanin, phenolic acids such as propionic acid, pentatonic acid, hydroxypropionic acid, hydroxyacetic acid, 2-hydroxypropionic acid and hexanoic acid was reported. Gossypetin -3'-Oglucoside was isolated for the first time from the flowers of the plant in Martinic Island by maceration with methanol (24 h), and Soxhlet extraction with methanol, ethyl acetate and 1,2-dimethoxyethane as solvents (Françoise-Haugrin, 2015; Yaque et al., 2016).The aim of this research was to establish the pharmacognostic and phytochemical control methods for the flowers of this plant that grows in Cuba and Martinica.
Conclusion
Physicochemical parameters like ash values, moisture content and extractable matter are all indicators of quality flower medicine, which help to determinate the physiological and non-physiological ash, possibility of microbial growth or contamination and presence of impurities respectively. The relative high total ash value and a high ratio of water soluble ash content of T. elatum S.w indicates that the crude drug contains plenty of physiological ash and the nonphysiological content, it will affect the clinical efficacy of drugs, so it should pay attention to the control quality of medicinal materials in plants production.
The compounds identified can be also used as biomarkers especially for T. elatum. The phenolic profiles of the petals reveal high predominance of flavonoids, which are antioxidant compounds that modulate a variety of beneficial biological events.
Therefore, T. elatum edible flowers may be considered a source of important phytochemicals (mainly flavonoids and phenolic acids) with bioactive properties to be explored for pharmaceutical applications.
The analysis of medicinal plant materials is not restricted to those methods discussed or recommended here and many techniques similar to those used for the analysis of synthetic drugs are also frequently employed (e.g. volumetric analysis, gravimetric determinations, gas chromatography, column chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography and spectrophotometric methods). Details of all these methods can be found in The international pharmacopoeia.