REVIEW OF LITERATURE

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constituents. The liquid fraction was hydrolyzed with methanol, H2O and
sodium hydroxide at 65 oCfor 2 hours, cooled and extracted with hexane.
After adding 3% HCl to pH - 2.0, the mixture was shaken and
allowed to separate and the organic phase was washed with saturated
sodium chloride, dried and evaporated to yield a light yellow liquid which
was chromatographed to produce polyprenols.
Ibata et al. (1984) described long chain polyphenols in the family
Pinaceae. Polyprenols containing isoprene residues were isolated from
needles of 6 Pinaceae plants, for example, Cedrus deodara. The
polyphenols were identified as long chain betuloprenol homologs by
mass and NMR spectral methods.
Bhan et al. (1984) described that the wood of Cedrus deodara Loud
is moderately hard, durable and resistant to attack by termites. There
have been serveral investigations on plants in search of juvenile
hormone mimics. They discovered that Juvenile hormone activity of the
wood of Cedrus deodara oil is due to Δ 10 - dehydroepitodomatuic acid
and two new related compounds characterised as Δ 7 dehydrotodomatoic
acid and 7-hydroxytodomatuic acid. They also isolated minor amount of
limonene -8-carboxylic acid, geronic acid and 4-acetylcylohe-1-ene-1-
carboxylic acid.
Rastogi (1984) described that 80 species of Cedrus designated as
“True Cedars”, grow widely in the Asian sub continent, having medicinal