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1. The unsaponifiable matter of the lipids o f Thymelea hirsuta was investigated and the following substances were separated: a) Hydrocarbon fraction, proved by GLC and MS analyses to be a mixture o f n-C2,, n-Cze, n-Cze, n-CJo and n-C3,. Separation of the individual n-alkanes was achieved by preparative GLC. 6 ) T w o alcohol fractions, proved by GLC and MS to be mixtures of octacosanol, hexacosanol, tetracosanol and docosanol. One of the two fractions corresponds to that previously reported as an unidentified aliphatic alcohol. c) A sterol, m.p. 136-137' C, identified by GLC and MS to be nzainly /3-sitosterol (94%), with small amount of campesterol(6%). 2. Stigmasterol, reported by previous other authors, to occur in Thymelea hirsuta was not detected. Its absence was proved by IR, GLC and MS. 3 . The study of the fatty acids by GLC revealed the presence of myristic, palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic, linolenic and archidic acids.The phytochemical investigation of Thymelea hirsuta (L.) ENDL., growing in Egypt, had been first reported by SALEH et al. (1963) andGHARBO et al. (1970) revealing the isolation of a new constituent named "thymelol" and two other unidentified substances, in addition to (3-sitosterol and stigmasterol. Later RIZK and RIMPLER (1972) proved that the substance "thymelol" is a mixture of daphnoretin (dicoumarin) and b-sitosterol-0-D-glucoside.The present work deals with re-investigation of the lipid constituents to report o n the unidentified substances of GHARBO et al. (1970). Moreover, the report of the latter authors about the separation of (3-sitosterol and stigmasterol from the plant is also revised.Part I see RIZK and RIMPLER (1972).Downloaded by: Universite Laval. Copyrighted material.

Sesquiterpene lactones and flavonoids are the two major con-

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