Antiallergic polyphenols from Citharexylum spinosum

Abstract Three polyphenolic compounds; 1,3,6-tri-O-galloyl-β-D-glucopyranose (TGG) (1), methyl gallate (2) and hydroxyquinol (3) have been isolated from the aerial parts of Fiddlewood Citharexylum spinosum L. The structure of the isolated compounds have been established on the basis of spectroscopic methods in addition to comparison with literature data. These compounds in addition to the methanol extract were tested against their antiallergic activity through inhibition of β-hexosaminidase enzyme. It was noticed that all tested compounds and methanol extract have good inhibition for β-hexosaminidase release without affecting the cell viability where the production of β-hexosaminidase was decreased to about 69%, 60% and 56% by compounds (1), (2) and (3) respectively. The antiallergic activity of Fiddlewood has been reported for the first time.