Mangiferonic acid, 22-hydroxyhopan-3-one, and physcion as specific chemical markers for Alnus nepalensis

Abstract

Recently the Betulaceae family was divided into two families: Betulaceae with Betula and Alnus genera and Corylaceae with Corylus and Carpinus. Alnus is a genus of flowering plants which comprises about 30 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, few reaching large size, mainly distributed throughout the northern hemisphere (Daniere et al., 1991). There are two Betulaceae plant species recorded in the Flora of Vietnam Alnus nepalensis D. Don and Betula alnoides Buch. -Ham. (Pham, 1993). A. nepalensis D. Don (Betulaceae) (Vietnamese name: Tống quán sủi) is a woody plant that reaches up to 10–15 m in height. In the Chinese traditional medicine A. nepalensis is used to treat diarrhoea, bacillary dysentery, and inflammatory diseases (Vo, 1997). For the present study the fresh leaves, twigs, and stem bark of A. nepalensis were collected two times from mountainous areas in district Dong Van, province Ha Giang, Vietnam by a botanist, Dr. Tran Ngoc Ninh of the Institute of Biological Resources and Ecology, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam (collection 1 in July 2006 and collection 2 in June 2007). Voucher specimens of the plant (voucher number: 10.999) were deposited at the same Institute.