Lignans and Flavonoids from the Seeds of Centaurea bornmuelleri Hausskn. Ex. Bornm. and Centaurea huber-morathii Wagenitz

The reversed-phase preparative HPLC purification of the methanol extracts of the seeds of two Turkish endemic species Centaurea bornmuelleri and Centaurea huber-morathii afforded several dibenzylbutyrolactone-type lignans and flavonoids. The lignans arctim, matairesinol and matairesinoside, and the flavonoid, aftalin, were found in both species. While arctigenin and astragalin were only present in C. bornmuelleri, kaempferol was isolated from huber-morathii. A plant sterol, stigmast-4-en-3 beta-ol, was also isolated from the dichloromethane extract of C. bornmuelleri. The structures of the isolated compounds were determined by spectroscopic means. The chemotaxonomic significance of these compounds within the genus Centaurea has been discussed.