Iminosugar-producing Thai medicinal plants.

Area of Science:

• Phytochemistry
• Natural Product Chemistry
• Medicinal Chemistry

Background:

• Thai traditional medicine utilizes various plant-based crude drugs.
• Iminosugars are a class of compounds with significant biological activities.
• Previous research has explored the chemical constituents of medicinal plants.

Purpose of the Study:

• To isolate and characterize iminosugar compounds from specific Thai traditional crude drugs.
• To identify novel iminosugar derivatives from plant sources.
• To quantify the concentration of identified iminosugars.

Main Methods:

• Isolation of compounds using chromatographic techniques.
• Structure elucidation of isolated compounds via spectroscopic methods (e.g., NMR, MS).
• Quantification of compounds using established analytical methods.

Main Results:

• Alpha-1-C-hydroxymethylfagomine, 3-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-DMDP, and 2,5-dideoxy-2,5-imino-D-glucitol were isolated from Stemona tuberosa.
• Alpha-homonojirimycin was found at 0.1% dry weight in Stemona tuberosa.
• 1-deoxymannojirimycin (DMJ) was identified in Connarus ferrugineus (0.083%) and Albizia myriophylla (0.17%).
• Several new O-glycosyl-DMJ derivatives were discovered in C. ferrugineus and A. myriophylla.

Conclusions:

• The Thai traditional crude drugs "Non tai yak" (Stemona tuberosa), "Thopthaep" (Connarus ferrugineus), and "Cha em thai" (Albizia myriophylla) are rich sources of diverse iminosugars.
• New O-glycosyl derivatives of 1-deoxymannojirimycin were identified, expanding the known iminosugar chemical space.
• These findings contribute to the understanding of the phytochemical diversity of medicinal plants and may offer leads for drug discovery.