PYRANOCOUMARINS FROM Zosima absinthifolia (VENT) LINK ROOTS

Seyed Mehdi Razavi^a,#, Gholamhasan Imanzadeh^b , Fatemeh Soghra Jahed^b, Gholamreza Zarrini^c

^#E-mail: razavi694@gmail.com

^aDepartment of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran;
^bDepartment of Chemisrty, Faculty of Sciences, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran;
^cDepartment of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Tabriz, Tabriz-Iran

Received 02.04.2012 in final form 22.06.2012

Abstract. Zosima absinthifolia (Vent) Link (Apiaceae) is a perennial herb indigenous to Iran. It has been used as a medicinal plant from ancient time in Iran, Turkey and Pakistan. In the present work, air-dried and powdered plant roots were extracted with n-hexane, dichloromethane and methanol, respectively, using Soxhlet apparatus. The dichloromethane extract was subjected to vacuum liquid chromatography (VLC) and preparative thin layer chromatography (P-TLC) to yield two pyranocoumarins, aegelinol and agasyllin. The antimicrobial assay was performed using agar dilution method. The results showed that purified compounds have modest to weak antibacterial and antifungal activity.

Key words: Zosima absinthifolia, Aegelinol, Agasyllin, Pyranocoumarin