الفهرس 
Title : A pharmacognostical study of certain jatropha species (family euphorbiaceae) cultivated in Egypt
AbstractOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Genus Jatropha comprises about 175 species native to tropical and subtropical America and Africa. The traditional medicinal uses of certain members of the genus have been confirmed through several biological investigations. The current study aimed to evaluate the potential of four of the locally cultivated species namely Jatropha curcas L., J. gossipyfolia L. J. integerrima Jacq. and J. multifida L. as possible candidates for implementation in drug industries. To ensure quality and purity of the raw material, criteria for characterization and/or discrimination between the leaves of the four cited species were established via botanical profiling, proximate analysis, macronutrients, phytochemical screening, and quantitative determination of secondary metabolites as well as in-vitro evaluation of anti-oxidant effect and cytotoxicity. Different botanical, phytochemical and biological features were observed among the investigated species. The ethanol extract of the leaves of Jatropha integerrima, with highest terpenoid and/or steroid content and noticeable cytotoxic activity towards liver and breast carcinoma cell-lines, was selected for more intensive chemical investigation in view to isolate and identify its bioactive metabolites. Column chromatographic fractionation of the n-hexane and methylene chloride fractions of this extract resulted in isolation of 6 compounds which were identified via spectral analysis as lupeol, labd-13-ene-3,15-diol, Ý-sitosterol, stigmasterol, scopoletin and Ý-sitosterol glucoside. On the other hand, LC/MS analysis resulted in tentative identification of 40 out of 45 compounds in the extract including seven flavones (mavidin, luteolin, apigenin, saponarin, vitexin, isoorientin and rhoifolin) and three flavonols (rutin, quercetin and kaempferol), in addition to several amino acids and terpenes. Despite being reported in certain Jatropha species, this is the first report on the isolation and/or identification of these compounds in J. integerrima. Moreover, an HPLC quantitative procedure was proposed for standardization of the extract using scopoletin as marker compound