AESCIN DETERMINATION IN, SEEDS AND CAPSULES OF THREE PURE AND HYBRID Aesculus SPECIES

摘要

The genus Aesculus L. consists of 13 species, distributed in the northern hemisphere, primarily in eastern Asia and eastern North America, with one species native to Europe, one to western North America, and one to northwestern Mexico, No previous phytochemical studies were carried out on the investigated species. According to earlier reports on other species, Aesculus hippocastanum contains an aescin that is a natural mixture of triterpene saponins. The aglycons are derivatives of protoaescygenin, acylated by acetic acid at C-22 and by either angelic or tiglic acids at C-21. Two forms exists, α and β, which can be distinguished by melting point, specific rotation, hemolytic index, and solubility in water. A number of other products have been isolated from chestnut seeds, i.e., flavonoids such as quercetin, as well as antioxidants such as proanthocyanidin A2 and the coumarins esculin and fraxin. However, all of these products can be found in larger amounts in other sources; furthermore, it was concluded that the antiedematous, antiexudative, and vasoprotective activities of hippocastanus extracts (HCE) are exclusively due to aescin. From the ethanolic extract of the roots of Aesculus assamica two novel triterpenoid saponins with insulin-like activity were isolated. Also identification of novel saponins from edible seeds of Japanese horse chestnut (Aesculus turbinata) after treatment with wooden ashes and their nutraceutical activity were recently reported. It is worth noting that sapogenols from Aesculus hippocastanum showed significant in vitro cytotoxicity in the 9-KB cell culture assay.