Two species belonging to different families were investigated, Eucomis montana from
the Hyacinthaceae and Agapanthus inapertus from the Agapanthaceae.
To date no previous chemical investigation on Eucomis montana has been reported.
Eucomis species are routinely harvested, processed and sold for the treatment of
various ailments ranging from toothache, gastro-intestinal ailments, pain-producing
ailments and venereal and urinary diseases. Members of the genus have shown to
contain steroidal compounds and homoisoflavonoids. In this work one
nortriterpenoid, a eucosterol type derivative and eleven homoisoflavonoids belonging
to four classes, the 3-benzyl-4-chromanone, the 3-benzyl-3-hydroxy-4-chromanone,
the 3-benzylidenyl-4-chromanone and the scillascillin type were found in the bulbs of
Eucomis montana.
Agapanthus species are also used by a number of African tribes medicinally. The
bulbs and rhizomes of this family have been reported to contain steroidal saponins
and sapogenins. In this work the roots of Agapanthus inapertus have been
investigated and a tignan precursor and a lignan have been found.
Structures of the compounds isolated were determined using spectroscopic
techniques. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Durban 2003.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/8607 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Pillay, Bavani. |
| Contributors | Mulholland, Dulcie A., Koorbanally, Neil Anthony. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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