The purported healing properties of the ripe and dried fruit vitex are derived from its whole plant extract, which contains several active constituents. This includes flavonoids (i.e. casticin, kaemperol, quercetagetin, orientin and isovitexin), iridoid glycosides (i.e. aucubin and agnoside), essential oils (i.e. limonene, cineol, pinen and sabinene), diterpenes (i.e. vitexilactone, rotundifuran and 6-β-diacetoxy-13-hydroxy-λ-8,14-dien) and essential fatty acids (oleic acid, linoleic acid, palmitic acid and stearic acid) (Dugoua, Seely, Perri, Koren & Mills, 2008).
Most European vitex preparations appear in the form of native dry extracts such as capsules, fluid extracts as well as tinctures (Blumenthal, 2003). In Europe, there are no official guidelines regarding the standardization of these preparations. For authentication purposes however, the iridoid glycoside agnoside and the flavonoid casticin are used as marker compounds (Blumenthal, 2003). 
No comments:
Post a Comment