ANALGESIC COMPOUNDS OF CROTON URUCURANA BAILLON - PHARMACO-CHEMICAL CRITERIA USED IN THEIR ISOLATION

Croton urucurana, known in Brazil as Sangre de Grade or Sangra d'Agua is a species employed in folk medicine because of its analgesic and an tiinflammatory effects. This paper describes the isolation through exh austive extraction with methanol of the air-dried, pulverized bark and chromatographic separation of this plant's active compounds. This pro cedure revealed several compounds presenting analgesic activity, namel y campesterol, beta-sitosterol, stigmasterol, acetyl aleuritolic acid, catechin, gallocatechin and beta-sitosterol glucoside. A comparison b etween the analgesic potency of the identified extracts and that of th e pure compounds suggests the existence of other, more potent analgesi c compounds that are probably present in a very small proportions and that were not determined or it also suggests the existence of a synerg istic effect. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.