posted on 2006-07-26, 00:00authored byCatherine Koukoulitsa, Anastasia Karioti, Maria Camilla Bergonzi, Gennaro Pescitelli, Lorenzo Di Bari, Helen Skaltsa
From the polar extracts of Origanum vulgare L. ssp. hirtum 19 compounds have been isolated. The
structures and relative stereochemistry have been elucidated by spectroscopic analysis and determined
as apigenin, luteolin, chrysoeriol, diosmetin, quercetin, eriodictyol, cosmoside, vicenin-2, caffeic acid,
p-menth-3-ene-1,2-diol 1-O-β-glucopyranoside, thymoquinol 2-O-β-glucopyranoside, thymoquinol 5-O-β-glucopyranoside, thymoquinol 2,5-O-β-diglucopyranoside, 12-hydroxyjasmonic acid, 12-hydroxyjasmonic acid 12-O-β-glucopyranoside, lithospermic acid B, rosmarinic acid, 10-epi-lithospermic acid,
and epi-lithospermic acid B. The three latter products display unusual stereochemistry of the 3,4-hydroxyphenyllactic acid unit(s), which to the authors' best knowledge has never been reported before
in similar compounds. Moreover, lithospermic acid B (and its stereoisomers), p-menth-3-ene-1,2-diol
1-O-β-glucopyranoside, 12-hydroxyjasmonic acid, and 12-hydroxyjasmonic acid 12-O-β-glucopyranoside were isolated for the first time from Origanum species.
Keywords: Origanum vulgare L. ssp. hirtum; Lamiaceae; Nepetoideae; phenolic acids; monoterpene
glucosides; phenolic glucosides; hydroxyjasmonic acid