Phytochemical Constituents

Wills and Stuart (1999) and Stuart and Wills (2000a) completed a series of experiments to evaluate alkamide levels in E. purpurea grown in Australia. 

AVERAGE ALKAMIDE CONTENT (mg/g PLANT PART DRY WEIGHT) OF VARIOUS PLANT PARTS OF 

Location Roots Rhizome Flower Leaf Veg. stem0 Rep. stem  

Rogers et al. (1998) reported alkamide levels in E. purpurea between 0.24 and 1.1 mg/g aerial parts for samples collected at various locations within Australia. Again, the growing location did not have a significant effect 

AVERAGE TOTAL ALKAMIDE CONTENT (mg/g DRY ROOT) OF VARIOUS ECHINACEA SPECIES AND VARIETIES GROWN UNDER CULTIVATED AND WILD ENVIRONMENTS 

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The authors suggest that altitudinal variation in phytochemical constituents remains unknown. That this is factually incorrect is revealed by the well-known work on the effect of elevation on cyanogenic glycosides, as shown in the case of the clovers above, as well as in the case of alkaloid variation in Berberis just described. 

Yang, H., Duan, Y., Hu, E and Liu, J. 2004. Lack of altitudinal trends in phytochemical constituents of Swertiafranchetiana. Biochem. Syst. Ecol. 32 861-866. 

Fresh cut fruits are cut in a wide variety of shapes, and the cutting shapes could influence the degree of damage caused by the wound (Rivera-Lopez and others 2005). Minimal processing includes the unit operation of size reduction, and a given shape has to be given to the product depending on its final use. In the next section the effect of this unit operation on phytochemical constituents and bioactivity is discussed. 

Seeram NP, Adams LS, Hardy ML and Heber D. 2004. Total cranberry extract versus its phytochemical constituents antiproliferative and synergistic effects against human tumor cell lines. J Agric Food Chem 52(9) 2512-2517. 

Duke, J.A. Handbook of Phytochemical Constituents of Grass, Herbs, and Other Economic Plants (Boca Raton. FL CRC Press, 1992). 

Seeram, N. R Adams, L. S. Hardy, M. L. Heber, D. Total Cranberry Extract versus Its Phytochemical Constituents Antiproliferative and Synergistic Effects against Human Tumor Cell Lines.]. Agric. Food Chem. 2004, 52, 2512-2517. 

Duke, J.A. (2000a) LJandbook of Phytochemical Constituents of GRAS Lferbs and Other Economic Plants Lferbal Reference Library. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Elorida, 680 pp. 

A recent publication by James A. Duke lists the phytochemical constituents of generally-regarded-as-safe (GRAS) herbs (Duke, 2000a). It is also available as a searchable database on disk (WordPerfect 5.1 macros). There is also a volume dealing with 365 herbs having medicinal or folklore medicinal properties (Duke, 2000b). 

He, X.-G., On-line identification of phytochemical constituents in botanical extracts by combined high-performance liquid chromatographic-diode array detection-mass spectrometric techniques, J. Chromatogr. A, 880, 203, 2000. 

Sharma G, Chahar MK, Dobhal S, Sharma N, Sharma TC, Sharma MC, Joshi YC, Dobhal MP. Phytochemical Constituents, Traditional Uses and Pharmacological Properties of the Genus Plumeria. Chemical Biodiversity 2011 8(8) 1357-1369. 

Maries, R. J., C. Clavelle, L. Monteleone, N. Tays, and D. Burns. 1999. Aboriginal Plant Use in Canada s Northwest Boreal Forest. UBC Press. Vancouver, Canada. 368 p. Hetherington, M. and W. Steck. 1997. Natural chemicals from northern prairie plants the phytochemical constituents of one thousand North American species. Fytokem Products. Saskatoon, SK. 

One issue not resolved by the DSHEA, specifically for botanical or herbal dietary products, is the lack of standardization of the active component. As mentioned previously, the standardization of Echinacea products is based on the level of plant material rather than one specific compound. In many cases, the specific compound responsible for the health benefit has not been fully characterized. In addition, many phytochemical constituents may participate in an observed health benefit. The lack of standardized preparations may, in fact, be responsible for the conflicting reports surrounding the biological activity of Echinacea. 

Duke 1992 A Duke, Jamnes A. 1992. Handbook of phytochemical constituents of GRAS herbs and other economic plants. Boca Raton, FL. CRC Press. 

It may be added that the chemistry of plant biochemicals is every bit as interesting as that of synthetic biochemicals. The biochemicals that occur in each plant or plant extract are myriad in number, with some having more pronounced bioactivity than others. For an indication of the possibUities, one may consult James Duke s Handbook of Phytochemical Constituents of GRAS Herbs and Other Economic Plants (the acronym GRAS means genraaUy recommended as safe ). 

A preliminary chromatographic analysis of phytochemical constituents of selected species the three subfamilies in the Dipterocarpaceae was reported in 1977 [5], and indicated the presence of triterpenoids similar to dipterocarpol as constituents common to the three subfamilies. It was recommended that further studies on phenolic compounds such as flavonoids, which might be used as chemotaxonomic markers, should be carried out [5]. The present chapter focuses on the biologically active constituents of the plants in the family Dipterocarpaceae. 

Villarreal-Lozoya, J.E., Lombardini, L., and Cisneros-Zevallos, L., Phytochemical constituents and antioxidant capacity of different pecan [Carya illinoinensis (Wangenh.) K. Koch] cultivars. Food Chem., 102, 1241-1249, 2007. 

Phytochemical Constituents Identified from Pistacia vera L. Nuts ... 

Mills, F. 1967. Phytochemical constituents of Eupatorium purpu-reum (Joe-Pye weed). Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, OH. 

Viswanathan MB, Ramesh N, Ahilan A, Lakshmanaperumalsamy P (2004) Phytochemical constituents and antimicrobial activity from the stems of Jatropha maheshwarii. Med Chem Res 13 361-368... 

Njoku OV, Obi C (2009) Phytochemical constituents of some selected medicinal plants. Afr J Pure Appl Chem 3 228... 

Krishnaiah D, Devi T, Bono A, Sarbatly R (2009) Studies on phytochemical constituents of six Malaysian medicinal plants. J Med Plants Res 3 67-72... 

Duke, J. A. In Handbook of Phytochemical Constituents of GRAS Herbs and Other Economic Plants, CRC Press Boca Raton, FL, 1992 pp 143-144. 

Wu, H., J. Guo, S. Chen et al. 2013. Recent developments in qualitative and quantitative analysis of phytochemical constituents and their metabolites using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry./. Pharm. Biomed. Anal. 72 267-291. 

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