1. Planta Med. 2010 Apr 26. [Epub ahead of print]

Vasorelaxant Activity of Essential Oils from Croton zambesicus and Some of Their 
Constituents.

Baccelli C, Martinsen A, Morel N, Quetin-Leclercq J.

Louvain Drug Research Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels,
Belgium.

In this study, we determined the vasorelaxant activity of essential oils of
different samples of CROTON ZAMBESICUS collected in the same area in Benin at
different periods and analysed their compositions by GC-FID and GC-MS. 68
compounds were identified among which 20 have not been described previously in
this plant's essential oils. We observed quantitative differences among essential
oils but all possess significant vasorelaxant activity on intact rat aortae
contracted by KCl (IC (50) 5.6-11.8 microg/mL). This activity may, at least in
part, be explained by the presence of vasorelaxant diterpenes such as
ENT-18-hydroxy-trachyloban-3-one, isopimara-7,15-dien-3beta-ol, and
ENT-18-hydroxy-isopimar-7,15-dien-3beta-ol, previously isolated from the
dichloromethane extract of the leaves, but also to linalool (IC (50) 43.4
microg/mL) and particularly to caryophyllene oxide (IC (50) 2.5 microg/mL). ©
Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

PMID: 20422508 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]