CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS AND ANTIPROLIFERATIVE ACTIVITY OF Euphorbia bivonae

Euphorbia is a genus of plants belonging to the family Euphorbiaceae, consisting of about 2160 species. This family occurs mainly in the Indo-Malayan region and tropical America. Euphorbia also has many species in non-tropical areas such as the Mediterranean area, the Middle East, South Africa, and southern USA. Phytochemical studies of species from the genus Euphorbia report the presence of skin-irritating and tumor-promoting diterpenoids, several macrocyclic diterpenoids with antibacterial, anticancer, PGE2-inhibitory, antifeedant, anti-HIV, and analgesic activities. Some of the Euphorbiaceae species are used in folk medicine for the treatment of skin diseases, gonorrhea, migraines, intestinal parasites, and as a purgative. Euphorbia bivonae Steudel is distributed in Southern Italy, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon, and Palestine. There are no previous phytochemical studies reported in the literature on the chemical composition of the aerial parts. This paper concerns the determination of fatty acid components by GC-MS, the isolation of triterpene and coumarin constituents by chromatographic purification, and the antimicrobial and antiproliferative activities (by microdilution assays) of the acetonic extracts of Euphorbia bivonae stem and leaf. Leaf and stem fatty acid (%) contents of E. bivonae are reported. Stearic, linoleic, and palmitic acids, detected as methyl esters by GC-MS, are the main constituents in leaves; palmitic, lauric, decadioic, and oleic acids are the main constituents in stems. From the acetonic extract of the leaves were isolated eight triterpene compounds together with five known coumarins All compounds were identified by their physical and spectroscopic data (1H NMR, 13C NMR, MS) and by direct comparison with original samples. The obtained spectra of the compounds were in agreement with data reported in the literature.