PHYTOCHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL STUDY OF GREVILLEA ROBUSTA A. CUNN CULTIVATED IN EGYPT

The alcoholic extracts of the leaves and bark of Grevillea robusta A.Cunn cultivated in Egypt were subjected to preliminary anti-inflammatory screening. The results showed that, the alcoholic extracts showed a significant anti-inflammatory activity using carrageenan-induced edema. The alcoholic and aqueous extracts of the bark were tested as anti-HIV-1 protease, where they showed a moderate HIV-1 protease (1 PR) inhibitory activity at conc. 200 µg/ml. The ethyl acetate fraction of the bark showed a significant HIV-RT inhibitory activity, the n-butanol fraction showed a moderate activity, while the chloroform fraction showed no activity at conc. 200 µg/ml. On the other hand the chloroform and ethyl acetate fractions of the fruit showed a weak HIV-RT inhibitory activity. From the chloroform-soluble fraction of the total alcohol extract of the bark 2,6-dimethoxy-1,4-benzoquinone,  -sitosterol, 4-(1-hydroxy ethyl) anisol, robustol and  -sitosterol glucoside were isolated. Four phenolic glycosides were isolated from the nbutanol-soluble fraction of the bark and identified as arbutin, arbutin 2'-O -apiofuranoside, 4-hydroxyphenethyl alcohol 8-O apiofuranosyl(1''→2') -glucopyranoside and 4-O-trans-pcoumaroyl{  -glucopyranoside}8-O -apiofuranosyl-(1''→ 6')}-O -glucopyranosyl. The identification of the isolated compounds was carried out using different methods including physical, chemical and spectral analysis.