Bioenergy and bioactive components in leaves of Toona sinensis

Abstract

Toona sinensis is an important tree for urban greening construction. Toona sinensis sprouts are widely used because of their high medicinal and edible value. However, the functions and effective components of mature Toona sinensis leaves have not been fully exploited and utilized. In order to explore the value of Toona sinensis leaves in bioactive and bioenergy utilization, Toona sinensis leaves were extracted with benzene and ethanol, and then the components in extracts were analyzed by FT-IR and GC-MS. The results showed that benzene and ethanol extracts from Toona sinensis leaves mainly contained phenols, hydrocarbons, esters, alcohols, acids and other bioactive components. These bioactive components can be used in the fields of bioenergy, biomedicine, chemical row materials, food additives and spices. Among them, the content of bioactive components from benzene extract was higher than that from ethanol extract. These findings indicate that Toona sinensis leaves contain a large number of bioactive components which can be used in bioenergy and other fields, and have broad prospects for development.

Traditional Uses, Chemical Constituents and Pharmacological Activities of the Toona sinensis Plant

“…The C-17 side chain is an α configuration. At present, nine tirucallane triterpenoids (12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20) have been isolated from the barks, stem barks and seeds of T. sinensis. Three tirucallane triterpenoids (12, 16 and 17) have been isolated from the barks of T. sinensis [24,26].…”

“…Three tirucallane triterpenoids (13)(14)(15) have been isolated from the seeds of T. sinensis [25]. Three tirucallane triterpenoids (18)(19)(20) have been isolated from the stem barks of T. sinensis [23] (Figure 3).…”