Mulberry trees

Nomura T., Hano Y., Ueda S. Studies on the Optically Active Diels-Alder Type Adducts From Mulherry Tree Int. Congr. Ser. 1998 1157 379 390 Keywords mulberry tree, optically active Diels-Alder type adducts from mulberry tree... 

Metallocenes Mg(II)-catalyzed Microwave irradiation MO calculation Montmorillonite Moraceous plants Morphinadienes Mulberry tree Multifunctional catalysis Multi-step... 

The ancient Chinese discovered how to harvest silkworm cocoons, boil them to loosen the tangle, and unravel the silk into a fiber from which elegant clothing could be produced. A single silkworm cocoon can yield nearly a mile-long filament of silk, but the filament is so fine that it takes around 30 mulberry trees to yield enough cocoons to make one kilogram of silk. 

The larvae of Bombyx mori, the cultivated moth from which most silk has long been and still is made, feed on leaves of mulberry trees. In addition to cultivated silk, small quantities of "wild silk," also known as nonmulberry silk, have been derived in many parts of the world from the cocoons of moths other than Bombyx mori. Table 90 lists wild silks and the insect species that produce them (Peigler 1993 Jolly et al. 1979). 

Rice paper is the widely used misnomer for two entirely different materials also made in the form of thin sheets Chinese kung-shu, which is not paper (see text below) and washi. Also known as Japanese rice paper, washi is paper made from the cellulose fibers derived from the bark and branches of mulberry trees (Broussonetia kajinoki) (Inaba and Sugisita 1988 Barrett 1988). 

We used one-year-old twigs ofmulberry (Morns bombycis Koidz.) grown under field conditions as our experimental material. Mulberry trees are pruned before their leaves open in spring. As a result of pruning, many year-old twigs develop by August. 

Asano N, Yamashita T, Yasuda K, Ikeda K, Kizu H, Kameda Y, kato A, Nash RJ, Lee HS, Ryu KS. (2001) Polyhydroxylated alkaloids isolated from mulberry trees Moms alba L.) and silkworms Bombyx mori L.). J Agric Food Chem 49 4208-4213. 

Ikuta, J. et al., Constituents of the cultivated mulberry tree. Part XXXII. Components of Brous-sonetia kazinoki Sieb. 1. Structures of two new isoprenylated flavans and five new isoprenylated... 

Nomura, T., Phenolic compounds of the mulberry tree and related plants, Prog. Chem. Org. Nat. Prod., 53, 87, 1988. 

Morus alba L. M. constantinopolitana Poir. M. indica L. Sang Zhi or Sang Gen Bai Pi (Mulberry tree) (young twig) Morin, dihydromorin, maclurin, dihydrokaempterol, mulberrin, 2,4,4, t-tetrahydroxybenzophenone, mulberrochromene, cyclomulbeiTochromene.33 Antirheumatic, antihypertensive, diuretic, remove obstructions of the intestinal tract. 

About seventy kinds of new phenolic compounds could be isolated from Japanese cultivated mulberry tree (Morus alba, M. bombycis, and M, Ihou) and Chinese crude drug Sang-Bai-Pi (the root bark of Chinese mulberry tree). Most of them are isoprenylated flavonoids. Among them, kuwanon G (1) was the first isolation of the active substance exhibiting the hypotensive effect from the Japanese Morus alba root bark [9]. Furthermore, kuwanon G (1) and its isoprenylated derivative kuwanon H (2) [10] are considered to be formed through an enzymatic Diels-Alder type reaction of a chalcone and a dehydrokuwanon C or its... 

The root bark of the cultivated mulberry tree was extracted successively with n-hexane, benzene, and methanol. The methanol extract, 1—20 mg, showed a dose-dependent decrease in arterial blood pressure in pentobarbital-anesthetized rabbit, Fig. (4). The extract was fractionated successively by silica gel column chromatography (C.C.), polyamide C.C., silica gel preparative (p.) TLC, and p. HPLC leading to isolated of kuwanons G (1,0.2% yield) [9] and H (2,0.13% yield) [10]. 

On the other hand, in Japan, Sang-Bai-Pi (the root bark of Chinese mulberry tree) imported from China has been used as an herbal medicine, hence a study of the components of this crude drug purchased in the Japanese market was undertaken. Its phenolic components are different from those of Japanese mulberry tree. For example, morusin (3) and kuwanon G (1) are the main phenolic components of Japanese mulberry tree, in the case of Sang-Bai-Pi , these components are minor ones, while sanggenons A (4) [16], C (5) [17], and D (33) [61] are the main components [24]. Sanggenons C (5) and D (33) showed the hypotensive effects as follows Sanggenon C (5) caused transient decrease in arterial blood pressure at the doses of 1 mg/kg in pentobarbital-anesthetized rabbit by 15 mm Hg, while at the doses of 5 mg/kg the compound (5) caused a transient decrease by 100 mm Hg, which continued for more... 

Anti-HIV activity of prenylflavones from mulberry tree, kuwanon H (2), morusin (3) and its derivatives, was reported by Luo et al. [117]. We studied the effect of Morns flavones on HIV-1 ms infected MT-4 cells, but no flavone showed anti-HIV activity in our screening system [111]. These discrepant results might be due to multiple acting sites of... 

Zaidan-hojin Tikusan-kai, Ed., Kuwa no Bunka-shi (Cultural History of Mulberry Tree), Kyodo Publishing Co. Matsumoto (Japan), 1986, pp. 126 - 127. 

The first true paper was made in A.D. 105 by Ts ai Lun, a eunuch from the Eastern Han Court of the Chinese emperor Ho Ti. His paper was made from the bark of the mulberry tree on a mold of bamboo strips. 

Often used in concert with mass spectrometry, NMR spectroscopy remains an invaluable structural diagnostic tool of particular importance to tricyclic natural products chemistry. For example, the tricyclic phenolic compound moracin P (3) was one of eight previously known compounds identified together with two new isoprenoid-substituted flavanones in isolates of the root bark of mulberry trees <89H(29)807>. In a series of studies of 6-7-5 tricyclic natural products, ID and 2D H and l3C NMR spectroscopy were employed extensively in the structure determination of sesquiterpene lactones (4)—(8) found among the aerial natural products of toxic plants (85P1378,90P551, 90P3875). 

Kapa or tapa cloth is made from mulberry tree bark. Kapa is specific to Hawaii, while tapa is made throughout Polynesia. The differences arise from the methods used to prepare the bark, and the uses to which it is subsequently put... 

Deoxynojirimycin (DNJ, 1) was originally prepared by catalytic hydrogenation of nojirimycin, which was discovered as the first glucose-mimicking antibiotic produced by Streptomyces spp., with a platinum catalyst or by chemical reduction with NaBH4 [5,6]. Later it was isolated from the root bark of mulberry trees and called moranoline [7]. DNJ is also produced by many strains in the genera Bacillus and Streptomyces [8,9]. 

Fig. 5.1 Structures of N-containing sugars from mulberry trees (Moms spp.).

O-a-D-galactopyranosylcalystegine B2 (22) and 3p,6p-dihydroxynortropane (23), were isolated from the fruits of M. alba [12]. DNJ is present in high concentrations in all parts of the mulberry tree. Interestingly, silkworms feed exclusively on its leaves and appear to accumulate DNJ in their bodies since the DNJ content in silkworms is 2.7-fold higher than that in the leaves [12] (Figure 5.1). 

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