Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Pharmacy - Department of Pharmacognosy

The Asteraceae family occupies the highest position in the plant kingdom, it consists of 1400 genera and 25000 species, is classified into 3 subfamilies and 17 tribes, 222 species of Asteraceae family are distributed in Saudi Arabia, and 120 species of Echinops genus are found in different regions such as north and tropical Africa, Europe, Central Asia and Mediterranean region. The classification of Echinops genus is based on morphological characteristics but taxonomically is still unclear. Echinops species have been reported to contain several biologically active compounds. Therefore, this species can be exploited for the treatment of many diseases as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiulcer, anti-cancer, and antidiabetic. Echinops erinaceus Kit Tan is indigenous to Saudi Arabia and there is no previous chemical or biological reports on it. In this study, the air-dried flowering aerial parts of E. erinaceus were extracted and fractionated to give various extracts (total methanol, n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, and remaining aqueous extracts) which were estimated for their total phenolic, flavonoid, and tannin contents. On the other hand, the isolation and identification of pure compounds from the CHCl3 extract were studied. The investigation of the CHCl3 extract of E. erinaceus led to the isolation and identification of 14 compounds using different chromatographic techniques of which, four compounds designated as (erinaceosin, erinaceolic acid, erinaceol, and erinaceoside) were isolated for the first time from nature, with one rare compound (naringenin-7-O-Ý-D-(4``- trans-p-coumaroyl), along with nine known compounds (methyl oleate, ethyl oleate, taraxasterol acetate, taraxasterol, apigenin, loliolide, trans-p-coumaric acid, stigmasterol glycoside, and 5, 7, 3`, 5`, tetrahydroxy flavanone)

Issued also as CD