Determination of Quebrachitol Litchi chinensis and Dimocarpus longan in Sapindacea Family

Quebrachitol is one of the naturally occurring bioactive inositol stereoisomers, which can be used to synthesize nontoxic chiral medicine for cancer, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, etc. In the present study, abundant quebrachitol was identified in Sapindaceae fruit crops, Litchi chinensis and Dimocarpus longan using GCMS and HPLC-ESI-MS. High concentrations of quebrachitol were detected in the leaf, bark, pericarp, aril and seed of the species. In litchi cv. Heiye, their concentrations were 7.7, 4.6, 10.8, 1.6 and 9.6 g·kg^-1, respectively. In longan cv. Chuliang, their concentrations were 7.6, 7.3, 5.6, 6.3 and 5.6 g·kg^-1, respectively. Quebrachitol concentrations in the aril of twelve litchi cultivars were surveyed. The possible use of the residue from litchi and longan processing for quebrachitol isolation was also discussed.