An-Najah Staff

Organic Chemistry Laboratory of the Chemical Engineering Department at AUTh has a long tradition in Natural Products Chemistry specifically in the isolation, purification and development of quinone secondary metabolites [1–3]. The plant Anchusa arvensis or Lycopsis arvensis belongs to the Boraginaceae family and as many other genera of the same family, biosynthesizes in its roots naphthoquinone pigments of the enantiomeric Alkannins and Shikonins group.

Alkannin, Shikonin and their derivatives are a new class of drugs and exhibit mainly wound-healing, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activity. Recent studies have distinguished these compounds as potent antitumor agents. As far as we know, there have not been reported a study of the red pigments biosynthesized in the plant roots of Anchusa arvensis hitherto. Therefore, it is of great interest for our laboratory the isolation and structure identification of hydroxynaphthoquinone pigments of the roots, as well as their accompanying substances, such as lipids, waxes and alkaloids.

HPLC-DAD was applied for the identification of naphthoquinone pigments using standards, while lipids, waxes and alkaloids were identified using GC-MS. Alkannin/Shikonin and their esters acetyl-, β,β-dimethylacryl-, isobutyl- and isovaleryl- ones were determined in the mixture of pigments isolated fromAnchusa arvensis roots.