Secondary metabolites from Lasia spinosa (L.) Thw. (Araceae)

Lasia spinosa (L.) Thw. syn. Lasia aculeata Lour. (Araceae, subfamily Lasioideae) is a herb with an underground rhizome, native to Vietnam where is commonly known as "Ray gai" and used in traditional medicine as an anti-rheumatic and anti-inflammatory remedy. The structures of the isolated compds. from the powd. whole plant of L. spinosa which can be useful as chemotaxonomic markers for the study of the genus are presented. The study at subfamily level revealed that flavone C-glycosides and proanthocyanidins are the most characteristic components of the Lasioideae. Nevertheless, chem. constituents of Lasia genus have not been extensively investigated. In this study, two flavone C-glycosides were isolated from the whole plant of L. spinosa. These flavone C-glycosides include vitexin and vitexin 2"-O-β-D-glucopyranoside. In addn., a flavonol 3'-Me quercetin-3-O-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl- (1→6)-β-D-glucopyranoside isolated from the plant, may be useful to clarify the whole flavonoid profile of Lasioideae subfamily.