Plant glucosides

Fortunella crassifolia Swingle F. japonica (Thunb.) Swin. F. margarita (Lour.) Swin. Jin Gan Yuan Jin Gan Jin Ju (Kumquat) (whole plant) Glucosides, galactose, essential oil, pentosane, vitamin C.60 Antiphlogistic, antivinous, carminative, deodorizing, stimulant. 

Sarcandra glabra (Thunb.) Nakai Shong Jie Fong (whole plant) Glucosides, essential oils, fumaric acid, succinic acid.33 508 509 Treat malignant tumors. 

Sulfoxides occur widely in small concentrations in plant and animal tissues, eg, aHyl vinyl sulfoxide [81898-53-5] in garlic oil and 2,2 -sulfinylbisethanol [3085-45-8] as fatty esters in the adrenal cortex (1,2). Homologous methyl sulfinyl alkyl isothiocyanates, which are represented by the formula CH3SO(CH2) NCS, where n = 3 [37791-20-1], 4 [4478-93-7], 5 [646-23-1], 8 [75272-81-0], 9 [39036-83-4], or 10 [39036-84-5], have been isolated from a number of mustard oils in which they occur as glucosides (3). Two methylsulfinyl amino acids have also been reported methionine sulfoxide [454-41-1] from cockroaches and the sulfoxide of i -methylcysteine, 3-(methylsulfinyl)alaiiine [4740-94-7]. The latter is the dominant sulfur-containing amino acid in turnips and may account in part for their characteristic odor (4). 

From the plant Escallonia pulvemlenta (Escalloniaceae), which grows in Chile, an iridoid gluco-side of elemental composition CigZ/j On was isolated. Formula / gives the structure of the iridoid glucoside skeleton... 

Among the well-known Solanum species that have been chemically examined are S. nigrum, S. tuberosum (potato) and S. lycopersicum (tomato). From these and other species an alkaloidal glucoside, which was first prepared by Desfosses, has been obtained. This substance has been named solan ine, but it is not certain that all the plants recorded as containing solanine contain the same solanine or that the alkaloid has been obtained in a pure state in each case. 

Asarum europeum L. According to Abdul menev, the root of this plant contains 1-7 per cent, of imcharacterised alkaloid, asarine. The root produces in frogs, rabbits and dogs, acceleration of respiration, nausea and emesis the cardiac activity of the leaves is thought to be due to a glucoside. (Farmatsiya, 1945, 8, No. 4, p. 39 Chem. Abstr., 1946, 40, 7411.)... 

Most essential oils appear to be evolved directly in the form of terpenic or non-terpenic compounds separable from the plant tissues in the same form as they exist therein. A considerable number, however, are evolved in the form of complex compounds known as glucosides, in which the essential oil complex is present, but wherein the essential oil itself does not exist in the free state. 

The ferments able to decompose particular glucosides are usually found in the plants containing the glucosides, separated from the latter by being enclosed in special cells which do not contain the glucoside, so that the two substances must be brought into contact, in the presence of water, by mechanical means, such as crushing, etc. 

Firstly, there are those cases where the hydrolysis takes place within the plant itself during the life of the plant, so that the essential oil is actually a product, in the free state, of the metabolic processes of the living plant and secondly, there are those cases where the glucoside is not decomposed except by artificial processes, independent of the life of the plant. 

In the case-of most plants where the essential oil is due to a glucosidal decomposition, the products are of a non-terpenic character, but this is not invariably the case. 

In many plants the glucoside is decomposed durfng the life of the plant in a manner different from that just described. The conditions are not understood, but in the case of such flowers as the jasmin and tuberose... 

Hydrocyanic acid, HCN, also known as prussic acid, or formo-nitrile, is the product of decomposition of numerous glucosides found in a very large number of plants, usually together with some other volatile compound, so that essential oils containing hydrocyanic acid do not, for practical purposes, exist in the first instance as such in the plant, but are only developed on the decomposition of the glucoside. 

Phlomis consists of about 100 species, a dozen of which occur in Mediterranean Europe (Mabberley, 1997, p. 549). The study of interest here involves a study of the flavonoids of R lychnitys L., a small plant native to Mediterranean Spain (Tomas et ah, 1986). Those workers identified the common flavones apigenin, luteolin, and luteolin 3 -methyl ether (chrysoeriol) 7-0-glucosides and their respective /7-coumaroyl derivatives. A brief review of the literature revealed that Mediterranean species of Phlomis are characterized by the presence of the flavone methyl ether, whereas continental species appear to lack 0-methylated flavones. Species from India have been reported to lack flavones but accumulate flavonols. The suggestion was made that accumulation of flavonols represents an ancestral feature of the genus. 

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