PHYTOCHEMICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE FRONDS OF ADIANTUM CAPILLUS-VENERIS L.

Saqlain Haider, Mohammad Sarwar Alam, Hinna Hamid, Mohammed Ali* and Showkat Rassol Mir

ABSTRACT

Adiantum capillus-veneris L. (family Pteridaceae) is an aromatic, non-flowering fern with a creeping rhizome. Its fronds are used to treat chest diseases, headaches, insanity, jaundice and menstrual complaints. This research work was proposed to isolate chemical constituents isolated from the plant fronds and to characterize their structures. An ethanol extract of the fronds was fractionated with petroleum ether, ethyl acetate and methanol. The ethyl acetate fraction was adsorbed with silica gel for column, dried and chromatographed over a silica gel column packed in n-hexane. Various solvent mixtures of increasing polarity, viz., n-hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol were used to elute the column. The isolated chemical constituents were characterized as pentacyclic triterpenes (fern-9(11)-ene, 1), 3-α-hydroxyfernane (farnan-3α-ol, 3), farnan-3β, 16β-diol (4) and betulinic acid (5), an aromatic ester identified as 16′-methyl n-heptadecanyl 3,4-dihydroxybenzoate (2) and a rare diglucoside α-Dglucopyranosyl-(6→1′)-O- α-D-glucopyranoside (6). Their structures were established on the basis of spectral data analysis and chemical reactions.

Keywords: Adiantum capillus-veneris, fronds, extraction, phytoconstituents, isolation, spectral data, characterization.