Name: Jute
Jute – Corchorus olitorius L.
Homeland – India.
It grows wild in Vietnam. It has long been cultivated for fiber in India, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, Egypt, America, the USSR.
Large (2-3 m tall) herbaceous plant, annual in cultivation. The leaves are broadly lanceolate, serrate, up to 12 cm long, with two tail-shaped lobes at the base of the plate. Flowers yellow, 1-3 in leaf axils. The fruit is a capsule opening with flaps containing numerous oilseeds.
The seed cake contains two glycosides – olithoroside and corchoroside. Olitoroside is a bioside formed by strophanthidine and bovinose (deoxymethylpentose) and glucose. Corchoroside is a monoside consisting of strophanthidine and bovinose.
Both substances are valuable medicinal products of Olitorisidum and Corchorosidum, similar in action to strophanthin, but are inactivated in the body more slowly and therefore last longer. The diuretic effect is somewhat more pronounced than that of strophanthin.
The plant contains cardenolides.
PLANTS CONTAINING CARDIAC GLYCOsideS
For centuries, plant products containing cardiac glycosides have remained unchanged. They provide a selective therapeutic effect in heart failure. These plants are known to the peoples of different countries. The ancient Egyptians and Romans used squill as a heart and diuretic. The ancient Greeks used jaundice. Many plants containing cardiac glycosides have been used by the African people since time immemorial to make arrow poison. in Europe since the 18th century. foxglove began to be used.
The therapeutic effect of cardiac glycosides is due mainly to their aglycones (genins). The sugars that make up the glycoside molecule affect the solubility, permeability through cell membranes, the ability to bind to blood and tissue proteins; being inactive, they affect the activity and toxicity of glycoside molecules in general.
Aglycones of cardiac glycosides are derivatives of cyclopentanoperhydrophenanthrene, having at C 17 substitutes: an unsaturated five-membered lactone ring – the cardenolide type or an unsaturated six-membered lactone ring – the bufadienolide type.
The whole variety of aglycones, and hence their properties, is due to the specific features of the substituents. So, for example, a substituent at C 19 can be of different oxidation states – groups CH 3 OCH, CH 2 OH. In addition to a constant hydroxyl at C 3 (here esterification with sugars occurs) and almost constant at C 14 , hydroxyls can be C 5 and C 16 . Even greater differences in the structure are introduced by the number (up to 30) and the diversity of monosaccharides, among which most are specific for cardiac glycosides. According to the number of monosaccharides attached to genin at C 3 , bi-, trio- and tetrazides are distinguished.