New Compounds from German Chamomile, Matricaria chamomilla

Chamomile is a well-known plant widely used for commercial medicinal products as well as alternative and self-administered remedies. Its uses include the treatment of anxiety, sleeplessness and gastrointestinal diseases. Traditional uses mainly involve two species, viz., Matricaria chamomilla (German chamomile) and Chamaemelum nobilis (Roman chamomile). There are various genotypes of chamomile. Thus, German and Roman chamomile are often confused with related species having similar appearance or odor, especially those from the genera Anthemis, Matricaria, Chamomilla, Chrysanthemum and Tanacetum [1].

Adulteration of medicinal products claiming to contain Chamomile essential oils is a significant problem. The complex and not well defined phytochemical pattern of Chamomile extract makes clear recognition of adulteration a difficult challenge. In an attempt to identify unambiguous markers for adulteration detection, detailed investigations on the lipophilic fraction of German chamomile flowerheads were carried out. This effort resulted in the isolation and identification of some compounds never reported in Chamomile before. Structure elucidation of these compounds was accomplished by NMR. Compounds (1, 2) are structurally similar to the polyacetylene thongaosu (3), and they have been reported previously in some Chrysanthemum species [2]. Compounds 4 and 5 show spectroscopic similarity to bisabolol oxides A and B respectively but there's no reported evidence of their occurrence in M. chamomilla species.

Acknowledgments: This research is supported in part by Science Based Authentication of Dietary Supplements funded by the Food and Drug Administration grant No. 1U01FD004246–01; and the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Specific Cooperative Agreement No. 58–6408–2-0009. References: [1] Schilcher H, Imming P (2005) Chamomile, Industrial Profiles. Chapter 11. CRC Press. [2] Bohlmann F, Kapteyn HG (1966) Chemische Berichte 99 1830–3.