Phytochemical Investigation and Biological Studies on Selected Species.

is the more recent name for the genus , which contains over 250 individual species of flowering plants in the family . Several species are used in folk medicine and have been reported to exhibit various biological activities. Although known to exhibit different terpenoids and flavonoids, the chemistry of the genus is not comprehensively studied due to the structural complexity of the compounds. In this study, the extraction, isolation, and identification of secondary metabolites from three species (, and ) were conducted using chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques and afforded five known terpenes, viz., moronic acid (), 21β-hydroxylolean-12-en-3-one (), lupeol (), α-amyrin (), and β-amyrin (), in addition to six known flavonoids, myricetin-3-β-galactopyranoside (), rutin (), quercetin (), apigenin (), amentoflavone (), and quercetin-3-β-glucoside (). The structural elucidation of the isolated compounds was determined based on NMR (1D and 2D) and comparison with the data in the literature. Biological assays, such as antioxidant and enzyme inhibition activity assays, were conducted on the plant extracts and the isolated compounds. The antioxidant capacities of hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, methanol, and butanol main extracts were investigated using ferric ion reducing power (FRAP), oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC), and Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) assays. The results showed high antioxidant activities for methanol and butanol extracts of the three plants. The isolated compounds were tested against alpha-glucosidase and alpha-amylase, and the results showed the potent activity of moronic acid () (IC 10.62 ± 0.89 and 20.08 ± 0.56 µg/mL, respectively) and amentoflavone () (IC 5.57 ± 1.12 µg/mL and 19.84 ± 1.33 µg/mL, respectively). Isolated compounds of and biological assays for , and are reported for the first time.