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CHEMOTAXONOMY:
Definition:-The approach of taxonomy in which chemical nature of plants are used in
developing classification or in solving taxonomical problems is called chemotaxonomy
,chemosystematics, chemical taxonomy ,chemical plant taxonomy or plant chemo
taxonomy are the common names of chemotaxonomy.
It gives the close relationship between chemical constituents of plants and their
taxonomical status.
Purpose of chemotaxonomy:-
o Chemical characters and their use in taxonomy: - Naik divided the chemical
characters into 3 categories.
1. Directly visible characters:-Starch grains, raphides, silica ,gypsum ,etc
2. chemical test characters:-phenolic ,betalins, oil fats, waxes ,alkaloids
3. Proteins
o On the other hand in 1987 some authors divided the natural chemicals plants
products into 2 groups on the basis of molecular weight.
History of Chemotaxonomy:
By: Anukul
Chemotaxonomy of Medicinal plant
• Greshoff in 1909, suggested that chemical characters should be included in
natural classification.
• Baker and Smith in 1920, worked on single genus Eucalyptus (176)-collected
morphological and chemical data and finally concluded on the morphological
basis the feather contended leaves having more pinene in their volatile oil.
• Mc Nair in 1935, says that ‘more closely related taxas produce more similar
chemical products’.
• Beale and coworkers in 1940, surveyed 32 species of Tulip for anthocyanin
contents and distribution of group of compounds in genus as a taxonomic
characters.
• Conden et.al. in 1944, develop paper chromatography.
• Bat & smith in 1948, showed that paper chromatography applied to analysis of
plant pigments.
Descriptive taxonomy
Dynamic taxonomy
Serotaxonomy
Descriptive taxonomy deals with the classification of plant and secondary metabolite and
other products like sugar & amino acid. It is also concerned with evolutionary change,
chemical convergence and divergence in the plant.
Principle of chemotaxonomy
The same type of metabolites can be the product of two quite different pathways.
By: Anukul
Chemotaxonomy of Medicinal plant
Chemotaxonomic studies include the investigation of the pattern of compound
occurring in the plant and preferentially in all various individual parts of plant
such as the bark , wood, leaves , root, cuticles and seed.
Before any important conclusions are drawn about the presence or absence of a
particular compound adequate sampling of a large number of members of the
species at different stages of development and growing in different environment
should be made.
According to the interest of investigation the relative stages may vary (for
taxonomy, phylogenetic & chemistry)
By: Anukul
Chemotaxonomy of Medicinal plant
Interpretation and comparison of data:
All the data obtained from chemistry, phylogenetic and taxonomy is interpreted &
depending upon the evidence the classification of plant should be reconsidered. If only a
minor change occurs in the match of chemical and other variation then the classification
is essentially confirmed.
1. Primary metabolites
2. Secondary metabolites,
3. Semantices.
Primary metabolites, are parts of vital metabolic pathways, most of them are of
universal occurrence and is utilized by the plant itself for growth and development.
Example; starch, chlorophyll, aleurone grain, citric acid, aconitic acid, etc.
CARBOHYDRATES IN CHEMOTAXONOMY:
Carbohydrates are universal constituents of living organism and widely distributed in the
plant. Thus, carbohydrate is having little chemotaxonomic significance, but some of the
rare sugars having chemotaxonomic significance. Eg.
• 6-Deoxy hexose;
• 2, 6-Dideoxy hexose;
• Gentiobiose & Gentianose;
• Polyols and polysaccharides,
6-Deoxy hexose: It occurs in the form of methyl ether that is restricted to certain family.
So the presence or absence of such sugars is help in the study of phylogenetic
relationship. Ex. L-thevetose and D-digitalose are used as cardiotonic.
It is reported that sorbitol is present in all species belong to subfamily of rosaceae like
spiraeoidae, pomoidae, prunoidae, and rosoidae, but in species of ulmaria genus belong to
By: Anukul
Chemotaxonomy of Medicinal plant
rosoidae, sorbitol is absent. So, the absence of this chemotaxonomy marker confirms the
removal of ulmaria from spiraeoidae to rosoidae.
Secondary metabolites present in plant, is used for protection and defence. Eg.
Glycoside, alkaloid, volatile oil, flavonoid and plant phenol.
Glycosides in chemotaxonomy:
Glycosides are compounds in which one or more sugars are combined with non-sugar
components by glycosidic linkage or by hemiacetal linkage involving oxygen (O-
glycoside).
By: Anukul
Chemotaxonomy of Medicinal plant
Cyanogenetic glycoside in chemotaxonomy:
Thioglucoside in chemotaxonomy:
These are responsible for the characteristic flavors of various plants or family
brassicaceae and few related family like, Capparidaceae, Tropaeolaceae and
Resedaceae.
On the basis of alkyl component of glucosinolate compound, brassica species can
be differentiated eg. Brassica juncea (mustard) from Indian subcontinent contain
3-butenyl glucosinate and allyl glucosinate while those from Asiatic country
contain only allyl compound. So ancestry of Indian species is doubtful, because
that is hybrid of B. nigra (allyl glucosinate) and B. compestris (3-butenyl
glucosinate).
ALKALOID IN CHEMOTAXONOMY
o Proto alkaloids – derived from amino acids, but lack a heterocyclic ring.
Natural protoalkaloids are usually simple amines e.g. ephedrine ,
mescaline.Some times they may be precursor of true alkaloids.
By: Anukul
Chemotaxonomy of Medicinal plant
Some alkaloids like narceine and nicotine are occurring free in nature.
A few alkaloids occur as glycoside of sugars like glucose, rhamnose, and
galactose. E.g. alkaloids of solanum and veratrum groups as amides (Piperine), as
esters (Atropine, Cocaine) of organic acid.
Definition of alkaloids
Definition:
Alkaloids are more or less toxic substances having physiological action. They are
basic in nature, contain heterocyclic nitrogen, and are synthesized in plants from
amino acid and or their intermediate derivatives. They are of limited distribution
in plant kingdom.”
But such definition excludes a number of nitrogen containing plant constituents,
which are normally thought as alkaloids. E.g. Biological amines like Ephedrine
,Hardenine,Betain ,Cholin, Muscarine. All such alkaloids are separately referred
as protoalkaloids or biological amines or amino alkaloids.
But when protoalkaloids and true alkaloids occur in same genus or family, both
are usually classified as alkaloids. Ex. – Hardenine, Mescaline in cactaceae
family.
Another group of nitrogen compounds that fall outside our definition of alkaloids
are mono, sesqui,di-terpenes, steroids, nicotinic acid, purines. These can also
be classified according to precursor on which they are based and collectively
called as pseudo alkaloids.E.g . Conessine, Caffeine.
By: Anukul
Chemotaxonomy of Medicinal plant
Definition of alkaloid plants:
There is no sharp dividing line between alkaloids containing plants and alkaloids
free plants.
From practical point of view, we can define lower limit as 0.01% of dry weight.
Another characteristic of true alkaloid is that it always contains more than one
alkaloid.
E.g. Ricinine is only alkaloid in Ricinus communis and Genitianine only alkaloid
in Gentianaceae, that’s why these two bases have been kept outside the class of
true alkaloids.
It has been found that amino acids phenylalanine, ornithine, tryptophan, lysine,
histidine, Anthranilic acid are primary precursors of alkaloids in plants.
Each of this amino acid can be regarded as starting point for synthesis of one or
more types of alkaloids.
Therefore we may put the alkaloids into families corresponding to six amino acids
mentioned above.
E.g.
Two similar substances or even same substance may be isolated from two
different plants and are taxonomically important if the compounds are derived
from exactly same metabolically process.
But same compounds or similar compounds are produced by different metabolic
pathways in different plants.
By: Anukul
Chemotaxonomy of Medicinal plant
Isoquinoline Alkaloids
Isoquinoline alkaloids are obtained from following plants.
E.g. Papaverine is obtained from P. somniferum family
Papaveraceae
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Chemotaxonomy of Medicinal plant
Berberine is obtained from Hydrastis canadensis family
Berberidaceae
The amino acid phenylalanine and tyrosine act as precursor for
isoquinoline nucleus.
Hydrastine which is found in Berberidaceae and
Rannunculaceae.
Tropane alkaloids
Among the best-known members of the group are the solanaceae alkaloids,
which are very characteristic of the solanaceae. Atropine and Hyoscyamine
serve as example.
In erythroxylum, cocaine alkaloids are found which are same in nucleus but
do not occur in the solanacae.
Ornithine is the precursor
Indole Alkaloids
Indole alkaloids are found in following plants.
Physostigmine obtained from Physostigma venonsum family
Leguminosae.
Yohimbine obtained from Rauwolfia serpentina family
Apocyanaceae.
Vinblastine obtained from Catharanthus roseus family
Apocyanaeae.
Indole alkaloids origination from Phenylalanine as in
Erythria alkaloids (Leguminosae) such as Erysopine.
In most cases e.g. Tryptamine (Loganiaceae), yohimbine
(Apocyanaceae) and strychnine (Loganiaceae) the parent
compound is tryptophan.
4-hydroxy benzoic acid and 4-hydroxy phenyl acetic acid have been reported in
eight genera of family saxifragaceae, but in case of Astilbe genus, 4-hydroxy
phenyl acetic acid is replaced by 2-hydroxy phenyl acetic acid.
By: Anukul
Chemotaxonomy of Medicinal plant
Coumarin derivatives are common volatile constituent responsible for odour in
many plants. The hydroxylated derivative are having restricted distribution can
be utilized as chemotaxonomic marker eg. Umbelliferone occurs widely in
Umbelliferae while in Compositae it is characteristic of genus Hieracium
(hawkweed).
Flavonoids are largest group of phenolic compounds. They are mostly found in
the vacuole of higher plant and absent in lower plant.
All flavonoids have common biosynthetic origin and therefore it posses the same
basic structural element, e.g. 2-phenylchromone skeleton. They may be present in
many classes depending on degree of oxidation of pyran ring which may be open
and cyclize into furan ring, e.g. 2-phenyl benzo pyrilium: anthocyanin & 2-phenyl
chromone: flavone, flavanol, isoflavone.
Flavone & flavanols and their glycosides are universally distributed but some of
the substitution patterns are restricted to certain family, having chemotaxonomic
importance.
• E.g. 6-o-substituted flavonoids in family: Laminaceae,Rutaceae,
Asteraceae.
• 5-deoxy flavone in family: Fabaceae
• 2-o-substitueted flavonols in family: Laminaceae, Solanaceae.
By: Anukul