PARTE UTILIZADA= Used part: Corteza.

ACCIÓN FARMACOLÓGICA= Pharmacological action: Purgante.

COMPOSICIÓN QUÍMICA= Chemical composition: Alcaloides esteroídicos: buxina, cloprotobuxina, parabuxina, buxinidina, parabuxinidina, buxinamina y otros alcaloides secundarios: berberina, bebuxina, buxalfina, buxamina, buxaminol; aceite esencial butiráceo, taninos.

ZONA GEOGRÁFICA= Geografical zone: Uruguay. 

DIVERSIDAD GENÉTICA Y MEJORAMIENTO DE PLANTAS MEDICINALES= Medicinal plants and improvement of medicinal herbs

DNA sequences of nine genes (plastid: atpB, matK, and rbcL; mitochondrial: atp1, matR, mtSSU, and mtLSU; nuclear: 18S and 26S rDNAs) from 100 species of basal angiosperms and gymnosperms were analyzed using parsimony, Bayesian, and max. likelihood methods.  All of these analyses support the following consensus of relationships among basal angiosperms.  First, Amborella, Nymphaeaceae, and Austrobaileyales are strongly supported as a basal grade in the angiosperm phylogeny, with either Amborella or Amborella and Nymphaeales as sister to all other angiosperms.  An examn. of nucleotide substitution patterns of all nine genes ruled out any possibility of anal. artifacts because of RNA editing and GC-content bias in placing these taxa at the base of the angiosperm phylogeny.  Second, Magnoliales are sister to Laurales and Piperales are sister to Canellales.  These four orders together constitute the magnoliid clade.  Finally, the relationships among Cemtophyllum, Chloranthaceae, monocots, magnoliids, and eudicots are resolved in different ways in various analyses, mostly with low support.  Our study indicates caution in total evidence approaches in that some of the genes employed (e.g., mtSSU, mtLSU, and nuclear 26S rDNA) added signal that conflicted with the other genes in resolving certain parts of the phylogenetic tree.

ÚLTIMOS AVANCES EN LA QUÍMICA Y ACTIVIDADES BACTERIOLÓGICAS EN LAS PLANTAS MEDICINALES= Medicinal plants, last advances on chemistry and bacteria activities on the medicinal herbs

Buxus alkaloids display a wide range of interesting pharmacol. activities.  Here, we present a short and efficient approach towards one of the alkaloids, buxozine-C I (R2 = CH2).  The first synthesis has been achieved with 91% yield starting from cyclovirobuxine-D I (R = H) by forming a tetrahydro-oxazine ring with formaldehyde at room temp. 

1) GONZALEZ, Matías ; LOMBARDO, Atilio ; VALLARINO, Aida. Plantas de la medicina vulgar del Uruguay. Montevideo : Talleres Gráficos, 1937. p. 26-27.

2) Fitoterapia : vademecum de prescripcion: plantas medicinales. 3ª. ed. Barcelona : Masson, 1999, p. 142.

3) QIU, Yin-Long, et al.  Phylogenetic analyses of basal angiosperms based on nine plastid, mitochondrial, and nuclear genes.  International Journal of Plant Sciences. 2005, vol.166, nº5, p.815-842.
 
4) LIU, Hai-Feng; JI, Min; CAI, Jin.  Short and efficient approach towards buxozine-C, an alkaloid from Buxus sempervirens.  Archiv der Pharmazie (Weinheim, Germany). 2006, vol.339, nº12, p.675-676.