Natural products from Bolivian plants

Bolivia has the most varied ecology in South America - the Amazonas rainforests, the dry forests of the Chaco, the mist forests, the punas and high Andean vegetation. Some general studies have been carried out on useful plants; traditional medicine has been practiced in parts of region for thousands of years, recognized and accepted for treatment of various diseases. Some of these widely used medicinal plants have also been used in the Andean region. A review of natural products chemistry in Bolivia is presented in this thesis.

Plants from Lake Poopo (Oruro-Bolivia) and lichens from Lake Poopo and Pongo (La Paz-Bolivia) were selected based essentially on ethnopharmacological knowledge of traditional medicine and abundancy in the region. Phytochemical studies of these led to the isolation and characterization of secondary metabolites, some of which are new compounds. The structure elucidation of the natural compounds was achieved by spectroscopic techniques (1D and 2D NMR, MS, IR and UV).