Novel Tritepene Saponins from Mandacaru (Cereus jamacaru)

Mandacaru ( Cereus jamacaru ) is a Cactaceae species widely used as food and for medicinal purposes in Brazilian’s northeastern region. Nevertheless, only a few alkaloids were identified from this plant. Hence, the knowledge regarding their chemical diversity remains scarce. In view of the importance of mandacaru for Brazilian semiarid region this work aimed to reinvestigate the chemical composition of C. jamacaru applying modern phytochemical tools. To achieve this main goal, the extract of the cladodes was obtained and chromatographed over Sephadex LH-20. After that, the main fractions were analyzed by High Pressure Liquid Chromatograph (HPLC) and Mass Spectrometry (MS). These analyses combined allowed the detection of two saponins, jamacarusides A and B, which were isolated and fully characterized based on 1D and 2D Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) data, as well as their fragmentation patterns obtained from HPLC-ESI-MS/MS. In summary, this work contributed to extend the current knowledge about the chemical composition of Cereus jamacaru and cactaceae family.