In vitro anti-hyperglycaemic effect of glucocapparin isolated from the seeds of Boscia senegalensis (Pers.) Lam. ex Poiret

Glucocapparin (I) used in this study was isolated from the seeds of Boscia senegalensis (family Capparidaceae). The structure of (I) was determined on the basis of an extensive analysis of the spectroscopic data. Brine shrimp lethality bioassay of (I) showed a marked significant cytotoxic activity with LC50 = 16.482 μg/ml. Compound (I) reduced the liberation of glucose from the liver of rabbits. The active concentration was 30 mg/ml showing that the in vitro anti-hyperglycaemic effect shown could be related to the traditional use of B. senegalensis seeds in Chad against type 2 diabetes.Key words: Boscia senegalensis, glucocapparin, liver glucose inhibition, cytotoxicity

Constituents of Kawal, fermented Cassia obtusifolia leaves, a traditional food from Chad

Femented leaves of Cassia obtusifolia are used as a substitute of meat or an appetizing agent by people of eastern of Chad and south of Sudan. Chemical composition of the methylene chloride extract from the fermented leaves of this legume was analyzed for the first time by GC and GC/MC. Thirty threeconstituents were identified. The major components are found to be aliphatic acids and identified as hexanoic acid (27%), butyric acid (10.4%) and valeric acid (6.3%) with lesser amounts of p-ethylphenol (17.2%) and p-methylphenol (13%). Examination of the protein fraction from leaves indicated 20.2% inthe crude leaves and 12.9% in the fermented leaves. The participation of 10 g of fermented C. obtusifolia leaves to the daily requirements in essential amino acids of an adult is from 13 to 25% of needed amount. Moreover this traditional food had a high content of potassium and calcium

Comparative study of the chemical composition of the essential oils from organs of Annona senegalensis Pers. oulotricha le Thomas subspecies (Annonaceae)

The chemical composition of the essential oils from leaves, stems bark, roots bark, epicarp and mesocarp of Annona senegalensis Pers., oulotricha Le Thomas subspecies (Annonaceae), growing in Brazzaville (Congo), were analyzed by CG and CG-MS. These oils essentially contain sesquiterpenic compounds (58.3 - 97.7%), dominated by oxygenated sesquiterpenes (21.8 - 88.3%), with elemol (13.2 - 35.0%), β and γ-eudesmols (3.7 - 58.3%) as characteristic components. The essential oils from roots and stems bark is distinguished by its high content in diterpenes (17.1 and 11.9% of the total), while the seeds presents a significant amounts of monoterpene hydrocarbons (25.8%) with α-pinene (6.2%) and β-phellandrene (11.5%) as major components accompanied by two oxygenated monoterpenes: bornyle acetate (4.5%) and smallest of 1,8-cineole. However, in the epicarp oil, the presence of about 5.8% of oxygenated monoterpenes as terpinen-4-ol and bornyle acetate in comparable rates (1.7%) was noted. The mesocarp oil is exclusively rich in aliphatic fatty acids (35.8%) which is absent in the other organs, but represented by lauric acid (18.0%), hexadecanoïc acid (8.6%), myristic acid (7.2%) and oleic acid (2.0%). Results were compared with same species collected in the democratic republic of Congo and in Cameroon essentially dominated by monoterpenes (84.2 and 87.6%)