Inula helenium or Elecampane root,Barutophor inulin fructosan and the application guide Scabwort.

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Phytochemicals and Constituents.

Elecampane Root Extract INCI Name Inula Helenium Extract CAS 84012-20-4 EINECS ELINCS No 281-666-1 photo picture image Key Phytochemicals: alantolactone,C15H20O2,(1.33%~2.79%).
 Main Content: Volatile oil, containing sesquiterpene lactones, mainly alamtolactone (= helenalin or elecampane camphor), isoalantolactone and their dihydro derivatives, alantic acid and azulene
 Inulin,Miscellaneous; sterols, resin etc.

 Constituents: Sesquiterpene lactones (mainly alantolactone, isoalantolactone), triterpenoid saponins, sterols (sitosterol, stigmasterol), volatile oil (helenin, including camphor, alantol, alantoic acid, alantolactone), a thymol derivative, bitter principles (possibly including dammaradienol, stigmasterol, friedlin), possible alkaloid, inulin (up to 44% in autumn and 20% in spring), resin, pectin, mucilage. On steam distillation it yields 1-3% of a crystalline mass (helenin) with a little oil containing alantol.

 Other Phytochemicals: isoalantolactone;dihydroisoalantolactone;dammaradienyl acetate; alantolic acid; alantol; proayulene; inunal; alloalantolactone; linalool;alpha-terpineol;1,5-trimethyl-6-(2-propenylidene)-cyclohexene; 3,4-dimethyl-2-hexanone;4-(2-butenyl)-1,2-dimethylbenzene; anethole;octylcyclopropane;alpha-terpineyl acetate;beta-elemene; geranylisobutyrate;beta-bergamotene;beta-ionone;alpha-cadinene; aristolene;alpha-curcumene; aromadendrene; myristicin,etc.
 Elecampane Root Extract INCI Name Inula Helenium Extract CAS 84012-20-4 EINECS ELINCS No 281-666-1 photo picture image

 Chemical Composition record from Hager's Handbuch der Pharm. Praxis, Vol. II, 1886, p. 76:

 Inulin, 30 to 40; a trace of volatile oil; inula (alant) camphor, or helenin, a crystallizable, volatile substance, 0.5; wax, 0.3; acrid soft resin, 2; glutinous bitter extractive, 33; protein bodies, 12.5; cellulose, 9.6; potassium and calcium salts. Inulin (6C6H10O5+H2O, Kiliani, 1881), an isomer of starch, was discovered in elecampane by Val. Rose, in 1804, and was called by him alantin. Sometimes it is also termed helenin. It is a fine, white, starchy powder, very hygroscopic, tasteless, and inodorous; its specific gravity is 1.356. Iodine gives it a yellow color, which distinguishes it from starch, and also renders it insoluble in water. It is soluble in boiling water, from which it is deposited as the solution cools. It is insoluble in alcohol. Diluted acids, upon heating, transform it into laevulose, the intermediary products, metinulin and laevulin (C6H10O5), being formed. Ferments, e. g., diastase, yeast, emulsin, saliva, have but a slight sugar-forming effect upon inulin (Dragendorff, 1870; also see Husemann and Hilger, Pflanzenstoffe, 1882, Vol. I, p. 142). The researches of Kiliani made it probable that inulin is chemically the anhydride of laevulose (see Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1881, pp. 188 and 469). Its solution in boiling water produces left-handed rotation upon a ray of polarized light. It melts near 165 Deg C (229 Deg F.), gives off water, and leaves a scaly, sweetish, gummy mass, readily soluble in water. Concentrated nitric acid, heated with it, converts it into oxalic acid. Diluted nitric acid, by oxidation, changes it into formic, oxalic, glycolic, and racemic acids. Inulin does not reduce Fehling's solution, nor does it undergo fermentation. It may be prepared in abundance also from dandelion roots, and those of the dahlia and other roots of the Compositae, when dug up in the autumn. Roots dug in the autumn yield over twice the amount (44 per cent, Dragendorff) yielded by spring roots. In the spring of the year a portion of the inulin seems to have been changed into laevulin, mucilage, sugar, and several glucosids.

 Alant camphor (helenin) was observed in the root of elecampane as early as 1760, by Lefebure and others (see Husemann and Hilger), as it sometimes crystallizes on old roots. J. Kallen (Ber. d. Deutsch. Chem. Ges., 1873 and 1876), has shown this volatile substance, which be obtained by distillation of the root with water, to be composed of needle-like crystals of alantic anhydride (C15H20O2), melting at 66 Deg C. (150.8 Deg F); alantol (C10H16O), an aromatic liquid; alant camphor proper (C10H16O), the latter a white substance melting at 64 Deg C. (147.2 Deg F.), of a mint-like, aromatic odor; and helenin (C6H8O), an odorless, bitterish, crystallizable principle, with melting point at 110 Deg C. (230 Deg F.).

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citations1.Inula helenium or Elecampane root,Barutophor inulin fructosan and the application guide Scabwort.

last edit date:18th,June.2009.