Zizyphus is one of the plants commonly used in Egyptian folk medicine for the treatment of different diseases. The present study aims to investigate the effect of the butanol extract of Zizyphus spina-christi leaves as well as christinin-A, its principle saponin glycoside, in normal and streptozotocin-diabetic rats. In normal rats, treatment in both cases for one and four weeks produced insignificant changes in all studied parameters. However, in diabetic rats, both treatments significantly reduced serum glucose level, liver phosphorylase and glucose-6-phosphatase (G-6-pase) activities, and significantly increased serum pyruvate level and liver glycogen content after 4 weeks treatment. There was also marked improvement in glucose utilization in diabetic rats in both cases. Serum insulin and pancreatic cAMP levels showed significant increases in diabetic rats treated for a period of 4 weeks with the butanol extract.

Triterpene, 3 >5,21 a-D ihydroxy-oleane, 11,13-Dien-28-oic Acid 3 ß,21 a-dihydroxy-oleane-11,13-dien-28-oic acid was isolated from the roots o f Glycyrrhiza echinata L. and its structure was elucidated by spectral analysis. Scanty work dealt with the triterpenoids of G. echinata L. Leading to the isolation o f echinatic [1], macedonic [1], isoechinatic [2] and isomacedonic [3] acids. The present work reports on the isolation o f an additional triterpenoid (compound 1).The dried powdered roots of G. echinata L. (4.4 kg), collected from the south-eastern region of Hungary, were successively percolated with dichlorom ethane and ethyl acetate. The ethyl acetate extract (18.25 g) was fractionated on S i0 2 column. Elution with dichloromethane containing increas ing am ounts of ethyl acetate, was m onitored by TLC. A white crystalline compound (1, 0.0007% dry weight basis) was eluted by dichlorom ethane/ ethyl acetate (7:3), m .p. 332-335 °C (dec., MeOH). It has a molecular ion 470 which corre sponds to the molecular formula C 30H 46O4. UV shows absorptions at 240, 248 and 258 nm suggesting the presence o f heteroannular-diene [4], The oleanane skeleton was revealed by observa tion of IR bands 1380 and 1360 cm " 1 (A-region) and 1340, 1320, 1290 and 1250 cm-1 (B-region) [5], The absorption bands at 3350, 1730 and 1680 cm -1 * Reprint requests to Dr. A. G. Hanna.Verlag der Zeitschrift für Naturforschung, D-7400 Tübingen 0932-0776/90/0700-1111/$ 01.00/0 are due to hydroxylic, carboxylic and ethylenic groups respectively. The presence of one of the ethylenic linkages between C ,, and C 12 finds sup port in the H 1 N M R spectrum by the appearance of a doublet at Ö 5.45 (1 H, J = 12 Hz) of the proton at C-12 and a quartet at < 5 6.25 of the proton at C -ll [4], So, the second double bond would be probably located between C ,3 and C 18. This finds support by the presence of an ion species (a) at m/z 315 which reveals the presence of a hetero annular-diene at neighbourhood to the -C O O H group located at C 17. The ion species (b), (c) and (d) at m/z 151, 133 and 119 respectively derived via the collapse o f ring B. seven methyl groups signals were observed at ö 0.63, 0.68, 0.82 (3 methyl groups), 1.05 and 1.31. 3ß-and 21 a-dihydroxy groups display 2 signals at S 3.17 (1 H, q) and 3.83 (1H , q) which reflect the shielding of the latter group which is usual in analogous compounds [6], m/z 315

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SUMMARY Samples from three early human placentae were incubated with [4-14C]-dehydroepiandrosterone (DHA). It was found that [4-14C]DHA was transformed into 7-oxygenated derivatives in yields decreasing in the order: 7-oxo-DHA > 7β-hydroxy-DHA > 7α-hydroxy-DHA. These products were only slowly transformed into other derivatives.

The roots and rhizomes of Polemonium cneruleum L. (Polemoniaceae) contain a large amount of saponins and are used as an expectorans instead of Senega roots. The sapogenins have been confirmed (1), the carbohydrate part of two saponins was tentatively assigned without using any spectroscopic or spectrometric method (2).