Phytochemical and Biological Investigation of Leaf Extracts of Podocarpus gracilior and Ruprechtia polystachya Resulted in Isolation of Novel Polyphenolic Compound

Phytochemical investigation of polyphenolic contents of Podocarpus gracilior Pilger and Ruprechtia polystachya Griseb leaves were resulted in isolation and identification of three and six known polyphenolic compounds respectively. In addition of a new polyphenolic compound isolated for the first time from nature from R. polystachya which is identified as 4`-O-Galloyl-myricetin-3-O-α-L-rhamnopyranoside (4`-O-galloyl myricetrin). Identification of hydrocarbons in P. gracilior and R. polystachya leaves resulted in identification of 19 and 21 compounds respectively. Concerning the composition of fatty acids content in P. gracilior it could be concluded that the unsaturated fatty acids (51.16%) represented higher percentage than that of saturated ones (38.87%). In the case of R. polystachya, the saturated fatty acids (70.58%) were dominated on the unsaturated ones (27.30%). The tested methanol extracts of P. gracilior and R. polystachya leaves showed antioxidant, antimicrobial and stimulatory activities to nitric oxide release from macrophage cell line. Methanol extracts of P. gracilior leaves had weak cytotoxic effect against MCF-7 cells (breast adenocarcinoma cell line) while methanol extracts of R. polystachya leaves did not show cytotoxic activity. [Amel M. Kamal, Mohamed I. S. Abdelhady, Engy M. Elmorsy, Mohamed S. Mady and Soad M. Abdelkhalik. Phytochemical and Biological Investigation of Leaf Extracts of Podocarpus gracilior and Ruprechtia polystachya Resulted in Isolation of Novel Polyphenolic Compound. Life Science Journal, 2012; 9(4): 11261135] (ISSN: 1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 169