Planta Med 2011; 77 - P_30
DOI: 10.1055/s-0031-1273559

New Phytochemicals from Acai (Euterpe oleracea Mart.)

W Wang 1, XC Li 1, WZ Tang 1, SC Rumalla 1, B Avula 1, TJ Smillie 1, IA Khan 1, 2, 3
  • 1National Center for Natural Products Research, School of Pharmacy, The University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, USA
  • 2Department of Pharmacognosy, Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, The University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, USA
  • 3Department of Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Euterpe oleracea Mart. (Arecaceae), of which the friuts are usually named as Acai, is distributed in northern regions of South America and is especially abundant in the Brazilian Amazon and has become one of the main export products of the Amazon estuary to the other regions [1–3]. The fruits of E. oleracea (Acai) are used to make various beverages and food preparations such as juices and desserts in Brazil, and are used medicinally for the treatment of diarrhea. Previous phytochemical investigations have shown that anthocyanidins, flavonoids, lignans, benzenoids, benzoquinone, momoterpenoids, norisoprenoids are constituents of E. oleracea. In the present report, the isolation and structure elucidation of 2 new compounds (1–2) were obtained from the fruits of E. oleracea (Acai), together with 6 known compounds, namely, cyanidin 3-glucoside, cyanidin 3-rutinoside, (Z)-4-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-p-coumaric acid, vanillic acid glucoside and uridine. Their structures were established on the basis of 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopic analyses and comparison with literature data.

Acknowledgements: This work is supported by Science Based Authentication of Dietary Supplements and Botanical Dietary Supplement Research funded by the Food and Drug Administration grant numbers 5U01FD002071–10 and 1U01FD003871–02, and the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Specific Cooperative Agreement No. 58–6408–2-0009.

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