Chemical composition and antioxidant activity of Astragalus monspessulanus L. growing in semiarid areas of Algeria

Abstract

This paper reports a phytochemical study of the aerial parts of Astra­galus monspessulanus L. growing in Algeria. It deals with the isolation and structure elucidation of 13 known compounds. From the n-butanol extract, seven flavonoids 1–7, two saponins and one lignan were isolated. In addition, two phytosterols and one triterpenoid were isolated from the ethyl acetate ext­ract. The structures of all the isolated products were determined by using 1D and 2D-NMR techniques, measurement of optical rotation, mass spectrometry ESI-MS and by comparison with literature data. Furthermore, the antioxidant activity of the n-butanol extract of the aerial parts of Astragalus mon­spes­sulanus L. was investigated using the DPPH radical scavenging and ferrous ion chelating assays. The n-butanol extract showed low (EC50 = 2.09±0.434 mg mL-1) to moderate (IC50 = 63.60±0.01 μg mL-1) antioxidant activities dep­ending on the test method.