From Astragalus species

El-Sebakhy, N.A.A. et al., Antimicrobial isoflavans from Astragalus species. Phytochemistry, 36, 1387, 1994. 

Stermitz, F. and G. S. Yost, Analysis and characterization of nitro compounds from Astragalus species, in Effects of Poisonous Plants on Livestock (R. F. Keeler, K. R. van Kampen, and L. F. James, eds.), 371-378, Academic Press, New York, 1978. 

Gum tragacanth is a plant exudate collected from Astragalus species shrubs grown in the Middle East (Iran, Syria, Turkey). 

Plant gums are solid exudates produced by some trees, notably of the family Leguminosae in response to some physical injury to the bark of the tree. Gum arabic, produced by Acacia Senegal, and gum tragacanth, from Astragalus species, are important conunercially, as adhesives, and for other Bibliography pHtgi... 

Astragalus genus is one of the richest source of cycloartane saponins. Oleanane type saponins are also found in Astragalus sp., but their occurrence is limited to structures common to Leguminosae. Fig (3) shows the naturally occurring cycloartanes and oleananes which have been isolated from different Astragalus species. 

Astragalus species are reported to tolerate very high concentrations of V which they utilise in nitrogen fixation (Cannon, 1963). Tolerance of high amounts of V in plants is due to immobilisation of the element as an insoluble product in the root, partial exclusion mechanisms also preventing uptake of the element from enriched soils (Peterson and Girling, 1981). 

Astragalus plants are cultivated and also selected from wdld stock. Cultivated varieties are mostly selected from A. membranaceus for medical use and cultivated in China, but the limited supply of the important Astragalus species is a nearly insurmoimtable problem connected with production of natural compounds, especially for their clinical evaluation. Development of an alternative production method using cell or tissue cultures might be one solution to overcome this problem and perhaps keep the high quality of the products [131]. 

During the past two decades, many researchers from different coimtries (mainly Russian, Japanese, Chinese and Bulgarian scientists) became to study the triterpenoid composition of many species from Astragalus genus [56,57,61-63,93-95,146,147,177-180,219]. Most of the... 

Tragacanth is a naturally occurring dried gum obtained from Astragalus gummifer Eabillardiere and other species of Astragalus grown in Western Asia see Section 13. 

A new HPLC method permitted the separation of 13 triterpene glycosides isolated from different Astragalus species within 40 min. A water/acetonitrile gradient was used as eluent, RP-18 was used as stationary phase, and evaporative light scattering detection was used. The method facilitated differentiation of different Astragalus species. 

James, LF Agricultural Research Service Livestock poisoning from Astragalus and Oxytropis species CRIS/UDSA 2001... 

Among cycloartane glycosides from Astragalus Turkish species, only astragaloside I (88) was able to stimulate NF-kB expression in macrophages. This implies that they are critical structural features responsible for macrophage activation by saponins [71]. 

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