Tocopherylquinone from Nigerian Ficus sycomorus Linn (Moraceae)

Abstract

Medicinal plants have been used for the treatment of various diseases and still play an important role in covering the basic health needs in the developing countries like Nigeria.  Herein, we consider a West African medicinal plant Ficus sycomorus Linn (Family: Moraceae). This plant is distributed in tropical West Africa and is used to treat various diseases such as mental illness, dysentery, cough, diarrhea, fever, tuberculosis and cancer. F. sycomorus is a tree of about 60 ft height with pale trunk and widespread crown pilose branchlets. This study aimed to isolate some compounds from the leaf of Ficus sycomorus. The dried pulverized leaf of the plant was subjected to successive extraction using dichloromethane with occasional shaking for seventy-two hours. The extract was drained, filtered and concentrated to obtain dichloromethane extract. The extract was subjected to Flash Column Chromatography using mobile phase, which progressed from 100% n-hexane to a 1:1 mixture of dichloromethane and ethylacetate. Silica gel (60-120 mesh size) was used as stationary phase. Further purification of the column fractions led to isolation α-Tocopherylquinone. The structure of this compound was established by careful analysis of their spectral (IR, 1H, 13C and 2D NMR) data and comparing them with those previously reported in the literature.