Biochemical syStemat& and Ecology, Vol. 23, No. 3, p. 339, 1995 Copyright Q 1995 Else&r Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved 0305-1978195 $9.50+0.00 Furoquinoline from Evodia fatraina NICOLE RAVELOMANANTSOA,* PHILIPPE RASOANAIVO*t and MICHEL DELMAS+ ‘Departement de Genie Chimique, Ecole Superieure Polytechnique, B.P. 1500, 101, Antananarivo. Madagascar; tlnstitut Malgache de Recherches Appliquees (IMRA), B.P. 3833,101, Antananarivo, Madagascar; *Laboratoire Fibres, Energie, Biomonomeres, lnstitut National Polytechnique, Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie, 118, Route de Narbonne, 31078 Toulouse Cedex, France Key Word Index--Evodia fatraina; Rutaceae; furoquinoline; evolitrine. Subject and Source Ewdia fatmina Perrier was collected in Andasibe region, Eastern rain forest of Madagascar (Perrier de la Bathie, 1938) and identified by J. P. Abraham, Department of Botany, Direction des Recherches Forestieres et Piscicoles, Antananarivo, by comparison with an authentic sample. Voucher specimens were kept at IMRA. Previous Study Chloroform extract of E. fatraina showed in vitro and in viva antimalarial activio/ (Ratsimamanga-Urverg, 1991). Present Study Air-dried and powdered root and stem barks were extracted separately by exhaustive maceration with alcohol. The combined alcohol solutions were evaporated to dryness under reduced pressure and partitioned between chloroform and water. The chloroform extract was submitted to silica gel chromatography using hexane and increasing amounts of chloroform as eluents. Evolitrine was obtained by elution with hexane:chloroform I:9 and crystallised from light petroleum. Chemical structure was established by comparison of its spectral data and melting point with those published in the literature (Rondist, 1988). Chemotaxonomic Significance The Ewdia genus is represented in Madagascar by 13 species all of which endemic to the island (Perrier de la Bathie, 1938). Little is known about the phytochemical constituents of these species, the only ones investigated so far being E. belahe (Rondist, 1988) and E. madagascariensis (Gleye, 1984). As evolitrine is among the furoquinolines known to have a little chemosystematic value (Waterman, 1975). the alkaloid contents of Malagasy Ewdia so far investigated do not seem to have significant systematic implications. They merely demonstrate the overall homogeneity of the Rutoideae. Further work will be needed to investigate the other secondary metabolites. References Gleye, J., Moulis, C. and Doazan, M. N. (1994) P/ant Med. PhytotheK 17, 92; Psrrier de la Bathie, H. (1938) Fiore de Madagascar et des Comores, 104kme Famille: Rota&es, Publicabbn de Mu&urn National d’Histoie Nature//e, FWik; Ratsimamanga-Uwerg, Rasoanaivo, P., Rakoto-Ratsimamanga, A., Le Bras, J., Ramiliarisoa, 0.. Savel, J. and Coulaud, J. F?(1991) J. EthnopharmacoL, 33, 231; Rondist, J., Das, B. C., Ricroch, M.-N., Kan-Fan, C. and Potier, R (1988) Phytochemistry 7, 1019; Waterman, R G. (1975) Biochem. Syst. Ecol. 3,149. (Received4 May 1994) 339