We have carried out systematical phytochemical studies on several medicinal herbs used in traditional Tibetan medicine growing only at 2500-4000 m above sea level on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and found that all these plants are abundant in flavonoids [1][2][3][4][5]. The genus Anaphalis (Compositae) is widely distributed in the west and southwest regions of China, and 17 species of them are used as medicinal plants. Anaphalis margaritacea (Linn.) Benth. et Hook. f. has long been used by local inhabitants as a Tibetan medicine for cough and respiratory problems as well as for colds and rheumatism. Previous chemical investigation of this plant only revealed the presence of flavonoids, polyacetylenes, and hydroxylactone [6-9].Herein we report the results of a thorough phytochemical study on flavonoids and triperpenoids from the whole plant of Anaphalis margaritacea (Linn.) Benth. et Hook. f. and their free-radical-scavenging potentials. Isolation of various fractions of the ethanol extract by column chromatography gave 12 known flavonoids. They were apigenin (1) [10], quercetin (2) [2, 8], kaempferol-3-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (3) [9], 3-methylquercetin (4) [5], spiraein (5) [10], 5,7-dihydroxy-3-methoxyflavone (6) [11], 5,7-dihydroxy-3,6,8-trimethoxyflavone (7), 5,7-dihydroxy-3,8-dimethoxyflavone (8), 5,6-dihydroxy-3,7-dimethoxyflavone (9) [4], 3,5-dihydroxy-6,7,8-trimethoxyflavone (10), tiliroside (11) (12) [12], together with four known triterpenoids, ursolic acid (13) [13], 3β-Ο-acetylursolic acid (14) [14], polnolic acid (15) [15], and 19α-hydroxy-3-acetylursolic acid (16) [16]. Their structures were established by direct comparison of their spectroscopic data with the corresponding literature values. Compounds 1-3, 5, 6, 12-16 were isolated from A. margaritacea for the first time.
[5] and kaempferol-3-O-[6′′-O-(transp-coumaroyl)-4′′-O-acetyl]-β-D-glucopyranoside1: R 1 = R 3 = R 4 = R 6 = H, R 2 = R 5 = OH; 2: R 1 = R 2 = R 3 = R 5 = OH, R 4 = R 6 = H 3: R 1 = R 4 = R 6 = H, R 2 = R 5 = OH, R 3 = OGlc; 4: R 1 = R 2 = R 5 = OH, R 3 = OMe, R 4 = R 6 = H 5: R 1 = OGlc, R 2 = R 3 = R 5 = OH, R 4 = R 6 = H; 6: R 1 = R 2 = R 4 = R 6 = H, R 3 = OMe, R 5 = OH 7: R 1 = R 2 = H, R 3 = R 4 = R 6 = OMe, R 5 = OH; 8: R 1 = R 2 = R 4 = H, R 3 = R 6 = OMe, R 5 = OH 9: R 1 = R 2 = R 6 = H, R 3 = R 4 = OMe, R 5 = OH; 10: R 1 = R 2 = H, R 3 = OH, R 4 = R 5 = R 6 = OMe 11, 13, 15: R = OH, 12, 14, 16: R = OAc O O R 1 R 2 R 3 OH R 4 R 5 R 6