Quillaja saponaria Rosaceae

Quillaia Quillaja saponaria (Rosaceae) Quillaic acid... 

Quillaia bark or soapbark is derived from the tree Quillaja saponaria (Rosaceae) and other Quillaja species found in Chile, Peru, and Bolivia. The bark contains up to 10% saponins, a mixture known as commercial saponin , which is used for its detergent properties. Quillaia s surfactant properties are occasionally exploited in pharmaceutical preparations where it is used in the form of quillaia tincture as an emulsifying agent, particularly for fats, tars, and volatile oils. The bark contains a mixture of saponins which on hydrolysis liberates quillaic acid (Figure 5.62) as the aglycone, together with sugars, uronic acids, and acids from ester functions. 

If the saponins from Quillaja saponaria (Rosaceae) and their anologs have been extensively studied as immunoadjuvants, few saponins from other sources have been reported to possess this property. In the following we will summarize results on studies of adjuvant saponins from Rhamnaceae, Araliaceae, Polygalaceae, and Fabaceae. 

The adjuvant activity of saponins has been known for more than 50 years [10]. Commercially available saponins frequently consist of highly heterogeneous preparations of varying composition, sometimes being little more than crude extracts of the bark of the South American soap tree, Quillaja saponaria (Rosaceae), which may be contamined with tannins. The major components, however, are bidesmo-sidic quillaic acid triterpene-saponins [10]. 

QUILLAIA BARK Quillajae cortex is the bark of Quillaja saponaria, Molina, family Rosaceae, from which the cork is removed. This species is an evergreen tree in Chile (in the valleys of the Cordilleras), Peru and Bolivia. The drug consists of the inner bark which is generally cut before marketing. It has an acrid taste and causes sneezing. The bark contains about 10% of a saponin mixture (Quillaia saponin), which besides its use as an expectorant also has a technical use and as an adjuvant in some vaccines as the saponin potentiates the immunising power of the vaccine. 

China bark Murillo bark. Inner dried bark of Quillaja saponaria Molina, Rosaceae. Habit. South America (Peru, Chile) cultivated in Northern Hindustan. Constit Quillaic acid, quillajasaponin, sucrose, tannin. 

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