A Phytochemical Analysis of Espeletia nana Cuatrec. a Midget Espeletiinae from Paramo Ortiz, Venezuela

Abstract

Espeletia nana Cuatrec is a resinous plant, member of the Espeletiinae Subtribe. It is a small size frailejón, 25cm high, found at Páramo Ortiz, Trujillo State, Venezuela. Leaves and roots were separately extracted with a 3:1 mixture of hexane-diethyl ether. Aliquotes of the acidic fractions were methylated and inspected by GC-MS. It was found that the resin from the leaves contained kaurenic acid (1a, 34.6%), grandiflorenic acid (2a, 40.1%), 15-ent-acetoxy-kaur-16-en-19-oic acid (3a, 8%), and 15-hidroxy- ent-kaur-16-en-19-oic acid (3a, 13%). The roots acid fraction contained 38% 1a, 39,6% 2b, 8.5% 3a, and 13.9% 4a. The GC-MS analysis of the leaves neutral fraction yielded 43% kaurenal (5), 3% kaurenol (6), 13% ruilopeziol (7a), 7% epi-ruilopeziol, 25% of nonacontane and 8% of entriacontane. On the other hand the roots resin contained 88%, 5.7% of 6, 2.5% 7a, 1.0% 7b, but only 1.5% of waxes. The bulk extracts were submitted to flash chromatography, leading to the isolation of pure kaurenes which were identified by direct comparison with authentic samples.

Keywords

• Espeletia nana
• Grandiflorenic acid
• Kaurenic acid
• Kaurenal
• Kaurenol
• Epi-ruilopeziol