Chapter 24
Chemistry and Bioactivity of Allium tubersom Seeds 1,2
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Shengmin Sang , Aina Lao , and Zhongliang Chen 1
Institute of Materia Medica, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, People's Republic of China Department of Food Science, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 65 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8520 Downloaded by COLUMBIA UNIV on July 17, 2012 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: August 5, 2003 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2003-0859.ch024
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The scientific name of Chinese chives is Allium tuberosum Rottl. (Liliaceae). It is known as "Jiucai" in China and "Nira" in Japan. It is a perennial plant and both the leaves and the inflorescences are edible. It has also been used as an herbal medicine for many diseases. According to the dictionary of Chinese medicines, the leaves have been used for the treatment of abdominal pain, diarrhea, hematemesis, snakebite and asthma; while the seeds are used as a tonic and aphrodisiac. In the present study, 39 compounds were isolated and identified from the ethanol extract of the seeds of Allium tuberosum. Among them, 23 are new compounds and include spirostanol saponins, furostanol saponins, cholesterol saponins and alkaloids. Their structures were identified by a combination of ESIMS, ID, and 2D-NMR (COSY, TOCSY, ROSEY, HMQC, and HMBC). The antitumor activities of some of these compounds will be discussed.
© 2003 American Chemical Society In Oriental Foods and Herbs; Ho, C., et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2003.
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Downloaded by COLUMBIA UNIV on July 17, 2012 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: August 5, 2003 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2003-0859.ch024
318 The scientific name of Chinese chives is Allium tuberosum Rottl. (Liliaceae). It is known as "Jiucai" in China and "Nira" in Japan. It is believed to have originated in China. It grows naturally in central and northern parts of Asia, and is cultured in China, Japan, Korea, India, Nepal, Thailand and the Philippines (/). It is a perennial plant and both the leaves and the inflorescences are eaten. It has also been used as an herbal medicine for many diseases. According to the dictionary of Chinese medicines (2), the leaves have been used for the treatment of abdominal pain, diarrhea, hematemesis, snakebite and asthma; while the seeds are used as a tonic and aphrodisiac. In earlier studies, various volatile and nonvolatile sulfur-containing compounds (5-5), N-pcoumaroyl tyramine and bis-(/?-hydroxyphenyl) ether (6), purine nucleoside, adenosine, and major free amino acids, alanine, glutamic acid, aspartic acid and valine (7), 3-0-rhamnogalactosyl-7-0-rhamnosylkaempferol (
