Recently, in course of our chemotaxonomic studies of Yugoslavian plants belonging to Asteraceae, we have isolated from the aerial parts of Anthemis carpatica Willd. thirteen new highly oxygenated guaiadienolides, seven of them with a hydroperoxy function (1,2). Common features of these lactones were 11(13)-double bond, 10a-OH and 9 a -OH (or OAcetyl) functionalities. Most of them, with exception of two, also contained 8 a -OH (or Acyl functionality, Acyl = Acetyl or i-Butyrate). The remaining double bond was positioned in the five-member ring in the following ways: (i) D² (six compounds), (ii) D³ (four compounds) and (iii) D⁴ (three compounds). It is known that A. nobilis L. (syn. Chamaemelum nobile All.), the species, also known as Roman chamomile (3) contained hydroperoxy sesquiterpene lactones, together with hemiterpene and monoterpene hydroperoxy compounds.

Due to a possible pharmacological importance of such highly oxygenated guaianolides, we are repeating the investigation of the aerial parts of A. carpatica (collected at the same locality as before, i.e. the north part of Sara mountain, Kosovo, July 1996), focusing on fractions containing lactones not isolated before.

Hitherto, using the same extraction procedure as before (4), in combination with silica gel CC and prep TLC, we have isolated two new guaianolides (1 and 2). The structure determination of isolated sesquiterpene lactones was based on the ¹H NMR, IR, MS and 2D NMR methods - DQF COSY, TOCSY, PS NOESY, HSQC and HMBC.

References

1. Bulatović V., Vajs V., Macura S., Juranić N. and Milosavljević S. (1997): J. Nat. Prod 60, 1222-1229.
2. Bulatović V., Vajs V., Milosavljević S., Menković N. and Šavikin-Fodulović K. (1997): New Sesquiterpene Lactone from Anthemis carpatica, C26, 45^th Annual Congress on the Society for Medicinal Plant Research, Regensburg.
3. Rücker G., Mayer R. and Lee K.R. (1989): Arch. Pharm. (Weinheim) 322, 821-826.
4. Bohlmann F., Zdero C., King H.R. and Robinson E.H. (1984): Phytochemistry 23, 197.