Lauraceae

Cinnamomum cassia B/um (Lauraceae) is the so-caUed cassia. It is native to southeastern China and has not been grown successfuUy outside of this area. The dried bark of this evergreen tree is stripped, ground, and sold almost exclusively in China. The leaves and twigs of the tree contain the same flavor components as the bark and are steam distUled to yield the cassia oil of commerce. Infrequently, smaU amounts of bark are bundled and exported as cassia lignea but caimot compete with the other varieties as bark spice. The Chinese prefer to seU the essential oil. 

It is convenient at this point to deal with the remaining alkaloids of the aporphine group, viz., domesticine, roemerine and the alkaloids of the Anonaceae, Lauraceae and Monimiaceae. 

Laurotetanine, C13H21O4N. H2O. This alkaloid was first isolated by Greshoff from Litsea chrysocoma, who also found it in a number of other Lauraceae, and subsequently by Filippo from L. citrata, and by Gorter from L. cubeba. 

Eugenol Myrteceae and lauraceae 1,4-ciniole Piper cubea... 

Other examples in the Gottheb and Kubitzki (1983) paper, following similar statistical methodology and logic, concern chemical changes in the evolution of Aniba (Lauraceae) in the Amazon, and associated river basins and relationships among genera of Papilionoideae as a function of their accumulated alkaloids. These are complex examples that would repay careful study by interested readers. 

Muga silk Antheraea assamensis Lauraceae and Magnoliaceae trees India... 

The family Lauraceae consists of 50 genera and 2000 — species of trees, shrubs, and herbs, of which 70 are of K medicinal value in the Asia-Pacific region. Lauraceae are... 

Caryophyllidae are an interesting source of oligosaccharides and peptides with potential anti-inflammatory and/or immunomodulating effect. These polar compounds might for instance explain the fact that the fresh juice expressed from Aerva lanata (L.) Juss. (Amaranthaceae) inhibits carrageenan-induced edema in rodent. Note that the seeds of Gomphrena species inhibit the formation of IL-6 by osteoblastic cells (MC3T3-E10) without cytotoxicity in vitro. Such property could be useful for the treatment of chronic rheumatoid arthritis, infection, and cancer. In the Lauraceae, trans-cinnamal-dehyde from Cinnamomum cassia (Lauraceae, order Laurales) inhibits in vitro the... 

Sousa FCF, Melo CTV, Monteiro AP, et al. Antianxiety and antidepressant effects of riparin III from Aniba riparia (Nees) Mez (Lauraceae) in mice. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 2004 78 27-33. 

Taxonomically close to the Annonaceae, the Lauraceae family abounds with apor-phinoid alkaloids. A remarkable advance in the search for topoisomerase inhibitors from Lauraceae has been provided by Woo et al. (6). Using DNA-unwinding assay and structural modeling, they showed that dicentrine can attain a relatively planar conformation and molecular bulk which allow it to occupy the active site of topoisomerase II which becomes inactive. The requirement of a suboptimal conformation to achieve DNA binding appears to make dicentrine less potent against topoisomerase II than the... 

Dodecanoic Laurie C12 0 High in seed fat of Lauraceae, present in milk, vegetable oils, nuts... 

Teles HL et ai, Benzopyrans from Curvularia sp., an endophytic fungus associated with Ocotea corymbosa (Lauraceae), Phytochemistry 66 2363-2367, 2005. 

Indcio ML et ai, Antifungal metabolites from Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, an endophytic fungus in Cryptocarya mandioccana Nees (Lauraceae), Biochem Syst Ecol 54 822-824, 2006. 

A very interesting result was the isolation of safrole from the essential oil of Piper auritum. This compound is abundant in the Monimiaceae and Lauraceae families. It was found to constitute 60 to 70% of the essential oil of P.auritum (16). 

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