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Updated: Oct 3, 2025
Isolation and Compositional Analysis of Plant Cuticle Lipid Polyester Monomers
Published on: November 22, 2015
Isolation and Identification of Acylphloroglucinols in the Medicinal Plant, Melaleuca alternifolia (Australian Tea
Janelle J Schafer1, Ian A Southwell1, Lei Liu1
1Southern Cross Plant Science, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Southern Cross University, Military Road, Lismore, NSW, Australia.
Abstract:
Melaleuca alternifolia (tea tree), family Myrtaceae, is endemic to the northern rivers of NSW, Australia. Since 1925, the volatile components of the hydro- and steam-distilled oils of the leaves have been studied in detail. However, the less-volatile compounds have not been investigated. Using an ethanolic extract of the seedling leaves, the non-volatile components were studied using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and liquid chromatography- mass spectrometry (LC/MS). Four of these less-volatile components were isolated by preparative-HPLC from young seedling leaves and identified as the acylphloroglucinols 1-(2,6-dihydroxy-4-methoxy-3-methylphenyl)-2-methylpropan-1-one, callisalignone A, 1-(2,6-dihydroxy-4-methoxyphenyl)-3-methylbutan-1-one and pulverulentone B described here for the first time from M. alternifolia. These compounds change in concentration in the leaf sets as later seedling leaves mature on the seedling.
