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Received Jan 25, 2018; Accepted Apr 19, 2018
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1. Introduction
Clausena lansium (Lour.) Skeels commonly known as wampee is an evergreen tree, which is endemic to China. It is commonly cultivated in different parts of southern China including Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hainan. Wampee is occasionally grown in India, Sri Lanka, Australia, and the United States [1]. The fruit of wampee has been introduced to southeastern Asia such as Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. Wampee fruit is either eaten fresh or served with meat dishes and in preserves, whereas its leaves are used as traditional medicines and food ingredients for cough, asthma, viral hepatitis, dermatological, and gastrointestinal diseases [2]. It has been reported that wampee leaves are rich in functional compounds such as essential oils [3], carbazole alkaloids [4], coumarins [5], triterpenoids [6], and amides, especially clausenamide [7, 8].
More recently, the neuroprotective potential of wampee extract for enhancing memory and to treat Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases has been reported [9–12]. The (-) clausenamide extracted from wampee was studied against Aβ-induced neurotoxicity and suggested as a therapeutic agent for Alzheimer’s disease [9]. Seven phytochemical compounds including five flavonoids were isolated and identified in wampee leaves [12], including Bu-7 flavonoid, which is a potential compound for treatment of Parkinson’s disease and protects PC12 cells against rotenone injury [10].
It is well known that many phytochemicals such as phenolic acids, flavonoids, anthocyanidins, and tannins possess remarkable health-benefiting properties, i.e., antioxidant and anticancer [13, 14], antiviral, and anti-inflammatory activities, and ability to inhibit human platelet aggregation [15–17]. Previous studies were mainly focused on bioactive constituents and their antioxidant activities in wampee stem and fruit [10, 18, 19]. However, phytochemical compounds and antioxidant activity in wampee leaf have rarely been reported so far. Moreover, no systematic study has been conducted on variation in phytochemical contents occurring in wampee leaves during development. Consequently, present study was intended to investigate the change in phytochemical compounds and antioxidant activities in the wampee leaves during different developmental stages of leaf.
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Sampling
Clausena lansium (Lour.) Skeels...