author(s) : Abdel-Fattah M. Rizk, H. A. Elgindi and Ibrahim A. El-Garf
Synonym
- Pancratium tortuosum Herb., Ann. Nat. Histr., ser. 1, 4: 28 (1840); Boulos, Fl. Egypt 4: 87 (2005).
- Hanklai (which means poison), ankulai bireid el kalb, onkula or burraid.
family name
AMARYLLIDACEAE
genus name
Pancratium
The proximate composition of the different parts of the plant, growing in Egypt are shown in Table 6 (Rizk, 1963; Ahmed et al., 1964).
Phytochemical screening of Pancratium tortuosum revealed the presence of saponins, cardiac glycosides, flavonoids, triterpenes and steroids (Sultan et al., 2010).
The study of the carbohydrates revealed the presence of fructose, glucose, sucrose, melibiose, raffinose and stachyose, in addition to other two unidentified oligosaccharides assumed to be mannotriose and verbascose (Ahmed and Rizk, 1964a).
The mucilage isolated from the different parts of the plant (Table 7) was found to be composed of D-glucose and proved to be of β-D-glucan type (Ahmed et al., 1964).
The amino acids identified in the plant were the same as tjose of pancratium arabicum (8.2.1). The fatty acids of the different lipid fractions are shown in Table 9 and 10.
The unsaponifiable mather of the lipids yielded ceryl alcohol, 1,21- heneicosanediol and β- sitsterol (Rizk, 1963; Ahmed et al; 1963).
The following alkaloids were isolated from the bulbs: lycorine, sickenbergine, vittatine, tazettine, galanthamine (or lycoramine) (Rizk, 1963; Ahmed et al., 1964), (-)-ungiminorine, (-)-ungiminorine N-oxide (123), (+)-martidine (141) and (+)11-hydroxyvittatine (140) (Toaima, 2007).
The alkalodal content of the different parts of the plant is shown in Table 10.
Tissue cultures of the tunicate leaves of Pancratium tortuorum spring bulbs showed that in the 1st phases of subcultivation the calluses produced measurable amounts of anthocyanins which diffused into the culture medium. The study indicated the prevalence of cyanidol in calluses, next to reduced amounts of peonidol.
In prolonged cultures the anthocyanin pigment disappeared from the calluses and was replaced by palmitic acid as the culture aged (Stanescu and Grigorescu, 1976).
The bulb of Pancratium tortuosum is used as malaria therapy (Sultan et al., 2010).
location
egypt