Extraction - Damiana Actives Known?

[Felix Guattari]

I know there's been a few threads on its effects, but does anyone have any idea what the active constituents of damiana (Turnera angustifolia) might be?

The following extracts give some clues; whatever it is -at least as far as anxiolytic effect in mice is concerned-, its soluble in methanol and n-butyl alcohol. My knowledge in chemistry is rather limited, but I imagine someone more knowledgeable could make some interesting guesses from the following extracts (though I imagine some of those guesses have probably been made in the full articles, to which I unfortunately do not have access.)

The most well-studied effects seem to be related to anxiolysis and aphrodisia, but there's also an interesting (and somewhat dubious) report on erowid of a constituent soluble in ethanol with deliriant properties.

Analysis of essential oils from wild and micropropagated plants of damiana (Turnera diffusa).

Alcaraz-Meléndez L, Delgado-Rodríguez J, Real-Cosío S.
Programa de Agricultura de Zonas Aridas, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste, P.O. Box 128, La Paz, Baja California Sur 23000, México. lalcaraz04@cibnor.mx
Damiana is a medicinal plant with many traditional uses and a reputation as an aphrodisiac. Essential oils produced by this plant are used in traditional medicine, and for the preparation of liquors and tea. The composition of essential oils from wild damiana, plants grown with micropropagated methods involving cell suspension, and explants in solid medium, is presented. Relevant differences are observed in oils coming from wild and micropropagated plants, where micropropagated plants being more uniform with respect to quality and quantity. The most abundant constituents of the oils were caryophyllene oxide, caryophyllene, delta-cadinene, elemene and 1,8-cineol.

Anti-anxiety activity studies of various extracts of Turnera aphrodisiaca Ward.

Kumar S, Sharma A.
University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Panjab University, Chandigarh, 160 014, India.
Turnera aphrodisiaca Ward (Turneraceae) has been used traditionally for treatment of anxiety neurosis and as an aphrodisiac. Yet, the plant has never been subjected to systematic biological investigation. In the present investigation, petroleum ether (60-80 degrees C), chloroform, methanol, and water extracts of T. aphrodisiaca aerial parts were evaluated for anti-anxiety activity in mice using elevated plus-maze apparatus. Among all the extracts, only methanol exhibited significant anti-anxiety activity at a dose of 25 mg/kg with respect to control as well as standard (diazepam, 2 mg/kg). The bioactive methanol extract was shaken with petroleum ether, chloroform, and n-butyl alcohol, and all the shakings as well as the remaining methanol extract (RME) were further evaluated for anxiolytic activity. Butanol fraction and RME were found to exhibit anxiolytic activity in mice at the dose of 10 mg/kg and 75 mg/kg, respectively.

Phytochemical investigation of Turnera diffusa.

Zhao J, Pawar RS, Ali Z, Khan IA.
Department of Pharmacognosy and National Center for Natural Products Research, Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, Mississippi 38677, USA.
A phytochemical investigation of Turnera diffusa afforded 35 compounds, comprised of flavonoids, terpenoids, saccharides, phenolics, and cyanogenic derivatives, including five new compounds (1-5) and a new natural product (6). These compounds were characterized as luteolin 8-C-E-propenoic acid (1), luteolin 8-C-beta-[6-deoxy-2-O-(alpha-l-rhamnopyranosyl)-xylo-hexopyranos-3-uloside] (2), apigenin 7-O-(6' '-O-p-Z-coumaroyl-beta-d-glucopyranoside) (3), apigenin 7-O-(4' '-O-p-Z-coumaroylglucoside) (4), syringetin 3-O-[beta-d-glucopyranosyl-(1-->6)-beta-d-glucopyranoside] (5), and laricitin 3-O-[beta-d-glucopyranosyl-(1-->6)-beta-d-glucopyranoside] (6). Their structures were determined by spectroscopic and chemical methods.