Phytochemical investigation on Scutellaria pinnatifida roots

Scutellaria genus has 300 species that 10 species of them are endemic to Iran. Scutellaria has been used in traditional medicine for treatment different kinds of disease such as cancer. The flavonoids of this genus are important according to their pharmacological activities. Scutellaria pinnatifida is one of the endemic plants from this genus in Iran, and there were not any phytochemical investigations about roots of this plant. In this study, flavonoids from roots of scutellaria pinnatifida are evaluated. The roots of Scutellaria pinnatifida were collected and dried in the shade. Then dried roots were powdered by the mill and extracted by distilled methanol and were concentrated in reduced pressure by rotary evaporator. The concentrated extract was decantated by immiscible solvents. The extracts of petroliem ether, methylene chloride, ethyl asetate, butanol were obtained which methylene chloride extract was used for the next stage of purification and structure elucidation. The extraction of flavonoids and purification were done using column chromatography and preparative HPLC respectively and then they were elucidated by NMR spectroscopy (1H-NMR, 13C-NMR). From the roots of Scutellaria pinnatifida two flavonoids were purified and elucidated that one of them was wogonin and the other one was SkullcapflavoneII. Scutellaria pinnatifida has flavonoids in its roots, Although these compounds were obtained from other species from scutellaria genus, in this study for first time these compounds were obtained from Scutellaria pinnatifida and thus more investigations about biological activities from this plant and its compounds are recommended.