A CHEMOTAXONOMIC SURVEY OF KAURENE DERIVATIVES IN THE GENUS ALEPIDEA (APIACEAE)

Lipophilic extracts from the roots of 16 species of Alepidea were stud ied by GC-MS for the presence of kaurenoic acids, dehydrokaurenoic aci ds, kaurenic lactones, hydroxykaurenoic acids and other kaurene deriva tives. Various mixtures of these compounds are present in yields of up to 11.8% dry wt. in the rhizomes and roots. Two different isomers of kaurenoic acid occur in Alepidea, the one as a major compound in all t he species, the other as a major compound only in some of them. The fi rst isomer is clearly a useful chemical marker for the genus Alepidea, but the apparent chemical dichotomy is not obviously correlated with morphological patterns. Alepidea amatymbica, however, is part of a mor phologically isolated group within the genus and also differs from oth er species in ifs chemical complexity and in the unique presence of ka urenoic lactones.