Flavonoids of the Sunflower Family (Asteraceae)

Abstract

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically those of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, broadcasting, reproduction by photocopying machines or similar means, and storage in data banks. This book is dedicated to:Arthur Cronquist Outstanding plant systematist and major contributor to understanding taxonomic relationships within Asteraceae and Ralph E. Alston (1925Alston ( -1967) Visionary natural products chemist and geneticist who pioneered the use of chemical data in studies of plant systematics and evolution PrefaceCertainly many of the readers of this book will remember the early developments of chemosystematics in the late 1950s. We ourselves remember the excitement of these new data bearing on plant interrelationships. The hopes were high, the techniques were rapidly evolving, the quantities of data were large, and young workers were eagerly enthusiastic. Some even went so far as to predict that chemical data would soon replace morphological information as the basis for plant classification. These overly zealous predictions did not materialize, of course, as the history of plant systematics has amply shown during the past two centuries. If there is any distinct characteristic of systematics it is synthesis, as Lincoln Constance (1964) called it, the "unending synthesis." New tools generate new data and provide insights on additional dimensions of plant relationships. This will never change-we will continue to discover new tools and new data in the years ahead, and they will continue to be incorporated into the predictive general reference system of classification.The earlier efforts in chemosystematics focused on secondary plant products: alkaloids, betacyanins, carbohydrates, cyanogenic glycosides, glucosinolates, lipids, terpenoids, and especialiy flavonoids. The latter were particularly well suited for chemosystematic investigation for several reasons: ease of isolation and characterization, small amounts of plant material needed for analysis, stability of compounds especially through routine preparation of herbarium specimens, and low cost to obtain useful information. As a result of these considerable advantages, literally thousands of studies on use of flavonoids in plant systematics have been published. Although now with the present zest for macromolecular data from DNA restriction sites and sequences, there are fewer workers and laboratories dedicated to flavonoid chemosystematic studies; twenty years ago they were the new currency of exciting data in plant systematics.Because of many workers historically interested in the sunflower family, Asteraceae (or Compositae), in part due to its large size (approximately 23,000 species;Bremer, 1994), and because hundreds of flavonoid compounds were discovered in this family, many chemosystematic investigations have been completed on various taxa. Many studies came from the laboratories of R. A. Alston, B. L. Turner, and T. J. Mabry in the Department of Botany ...

Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities ofPittocaulonspecies from México

“…However, the presence of flavonoids has been established in two Pittocaulon species (Arciniegas et al, 2009(Arciniegas et al, , 2011. In addition, flavonoids have been widely reported in flowers from Senecio species (Asteraceae) (Bohm & Stuessy, 2001), and they are also recognized as powerful antioxidants (Pietta, 2000;Masuoka et al, 2012). The presence of these compounds could certainly explain our results, but a further detailed analysis of the bioactive constituents is needed.…”

On the taxonomic status and the phylogenetic relationships of some unispecific Mediterranean genera of Compositae-Anthemideae I. Brocchia, Endopappus and Heliocauta.

“…and 1 % = 0.6-1.1 Myr (Lepidium; Mummenhoff & al. 2004 Bohm & Stuessy 2001) and that from these early origins in South America have rapidly dispersed into the rest of the world giving rise to the present subfamilies and tribes until the Middle Miocene (c. 10 Myr; Graham 1996), a minimum age of Anthemideae of around 20 Myr appears more plausible than the upper boundary of 37 Myr. Taking into account, however, that the earliest fossil pollen record of representatives of this tribe is based on an Artemisia type from Late Oligocene (Europe) to Early (western North America) or Middle Miocene (eastern North America) as given in Graham (1996), and following molecular phylogenies (Watson & al.…”

Quality Control of Herbal Medicines with Spectrophotometry and Chemometric Techniques - Application to Baccharis L. Species Belonging to Sect - Caulopterae DC. (Asteraceae)

“…NP-PEG reagent under UV 365 nm and UV 254 nm were used to detect the polyphenolic compounds present in the extracts (Wagner & Bladt, 1996), in accordance with that published for the Baccharis genus on account of the high occurrence of these compounds in the genus (Bohm & Stuessy, 2001;Gonzaga Verdi et al, 2005). Different color bands will be detected with the NP-PEG reagent under UV 365 nm or quenching bands will be detected under UV 254 nm if these compounds are present in the extract.…”