Flavonoids from Osyris alba Tsukasa Iwashina a, * , Jose ´ A. Lo ´pez-S aez b , Junichi Kitajima c a Department of Botany, National Museum of Nature and Science, 4-1-1 Amakubo, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0005, Japan b Laboratorio de Argueobotanica, Centro de Estudios Historicos, CSIS, Duque de Medinaceli, 8, Madrid 28014, Spain c Laboratory of Pharmacognosy, Showa Pharmaceutical University, Higashi-tamagawagakuen 3, Machida, Tokyo 194-8543, Japan Received 11 May 2007; accepted 23 June 2007 Keywords: Osyris alba; Santalaceae; Flavonoids; Chemotaxonomy 1. Subject and source The genus Osyris belongs to the family Santalaceae, and consists of six or seven species (Mabberley, 1997). Of their species, O. alba L. is a widespread dioecious hemiparasitic shrub and distributed in southern Europe, north Africa and southwest Asia (Aronne et al., 1993). The aerial parts and fruits were collected in January 2000 in Spain by one of the authors (J. A. Lo ´pez-S aez). A voucher specimen was deposited in the herbarium of National Museum of Nature and Science, Japan (TNS). 2. Previous work Nine quinolizidine alkaloids, i.e., anagyrine, cineverine, cytisine, N-formylcytisine, hydroxy-N-methylcytisine, lupanine, N-methylcytisine, methyl-12-cytisine acetate and sparteine, and 10 pyrrolizidine alkaloids, i.e., 1-carbo- xypyrrolizidine-7-olide, chysin A, chysin B, 7-hydroxyisovaleroyl-9-viridifloryl-retronecine, (þ)-1-hydroxymethyl- pyrrolizidine butanoic acid ester, ()-1-hydroxymethylpyrrolizidine butanoic acid ester, integerrimine, janfestine, retrorsine, senecionine and senecivernine, have been isolated from the whole plants (Le Scao-Bogaert et al., 1978; Woldemichael and Wink, 2002). Seven amino acids such as cystein, aspartic acid, methyonine, have been detected from the fresh ripe fruits, and it was shown that 50% or more of its pulp nitrogen may be attributable to non-protein compounds (Izhaki, 1993). D-Mannitol has also been isolated (Pepe and Castellani, 1969). A fatty acid, santalbinic acid has also been reported from the fruits (Hegnauer, 1973). However, flavonoids have not been reported until now. 3. Present study The dried aerial parts (ca. 250 g) and fruits (136 g) were extracted with MeOH, respectively. After concentration, the extracts were applied to preparative paper chromatography using solvent systems: BAW (n-BuOH:HOAc:H 2 O ¼ 4:1:5, * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ81 29 851 5159; fax: þ81 29 853 8998. E-mail address: iwashina@kahaku.go.jp (T. Iwashina). 0305-1978/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.bse.2007.06.008 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 36 (2008) 146e147 www.elsevier.com/locate/biochemsyseco