Isolation and characterization of a steroidal compound from the hexane extract of the leaves of Artabotrys odoratissimus

Artabotrys odoratissimus has been investigated by many workers for its constituents. Previous phytochemical studies have revealed this genus to be rich in secondary metabolites including phenylcoumarins, xanthones and triterpenoids. So far, not many studies have been carried out on this genus but there are some reports on this plant. Our recent study on the hexane extract  of  the  leaves  of  A. odoratissimus,   have  led  to  the  isolation  of  steroidal compound.  The structure of the compound has been established by modern spectroscopic techniques such as IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and mass-spectroscopy and identified as tetracontan-15-one.   Key words: Artabotrys odoratissimus, medicinal plant, tetracontan-15-one.