Attached
The immature inflorescence of Cocos nucifera L. variety aurantiaca is used in Ayurveda for the treatment
of menorrhagia in Sri Lanka. Preliminary phytochemical screening revealed that immature inflorescence
predominantly contains proanthocyanidins. TTie ethyl acetate soluble proanthocyanidin (EASPA' f action
obtained from an acetone/water (7:3) extract of the immature inflorescence was effectively purified and
separated from other phenolic compounds by chromatography on sephadex LH-20. EASPA has been
fully characterized by chromatographic, spectroscopic and spectrometric methods. Acid catalyzed
cleavage followed by TLC indicated that EASPA is composed of (epi)catechin and (epi)afeelechin
monomeric units while thiolysis followed by ‘H and 13C NMR spectroscopy revealed the monomers to be
the epi-isomers. I3C NMR studies of EASPA showed signals characteristic for epicatechin units
indicating that EASPA is composed mainly of epicatechin units. Confirming these epicatechin oligomers
with degrees of polymerization ranging from 2-5 and mixed oligomers, epicatechin-epiafzelechin dimer
and epicatechin-epicatechin-epiafzelechin trimer were observed by ESI-MS.
