Isolation of Epicatechin from the Stem Bark of Neocarya macrophylla (Sabine) Prance (Chrysobalanaceae)

Abstract

Neocarya macrophylla has a wide range of medicinal uses in traditional medicine. The aim of the study was to isolate and characterize compound from the stem bark of the plant. (-)-Epicatechin (a flavan-3-ol) was isolated from the ethylacetate soluble fraction of the methanol stem bark extract of the plant using a combination of silica gel and sephadex LH-20 column chromatography. The structure of the compound as (-)-epicatechin was confirmed on the basis of chemical test, 1D- & 2D-NMR spectroscopy and comparison with existing data in literature. This is the first report of isolation of epicatechin from the stem bark of the plant.

Keywords: Neocarya macrophylla, stem bark, (-)-Epicatechin, NMR analysis