Acerola cherry is the fruit of Malpighia emarginata (Malpighiaceae). Early in 1946, it was reported to contain abundant vitamin C with content as much as 4000 mg/100 g and given the name of ‘the king of natural vitamin C’.
Consigned by Amway (China), QIU Minghua group , Kunming institute of botany, conducted in-depth study on the chemical constituents of acerola cherry tree and found three novel natural products of norfriedelane type (named norfriedelins A-C). Absolute configuration of these novel compounds were determined by 1D and 2D NMR techniques and X-ray crystallographic analysis. It is noteworthy that norfriedelins A and B with unprecedented keto-lactone groups were found to show acetylcholinesterase inhibitory effects with the IC50 values of 10.3 and 28.7 μM, respectively. If the fruits also contained these novel constituents, suggesting that acerola cherry not only can play a role in anti-oxidation, but also in preventing Alzheimer's disease. This study was published on Organic Letters, 2013, 15(7): 1580-1583 (http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ol4003702). Further research is going on.
Malpighia emarginata
