Spatio‐Temporal Variation of Terpenoids in Wild Plants of Pentalinon andrieuxii

Pentalinon andrieuxii (Mull.Arg.) B.F.Hansen & Wunderlin (Apocynaceae) is a vine native to the Yucatan peninsula, where it is widely used in Mayan traditional medicine to treat, among other ailments, the wounds caused by cutaneous leishmaniasis. Among the secondary metabolites isolated from P. andrieuxii are the triterpene betulinic acid and the chemically unusual tri-norsesquiterpene urechitol A; however, to date, there is no existing knowledge about the accumulation dynamics of the ubiquitous betulinic acid or the novel urechitol A in the plant. In this article, we report on the accumulation of both secondary metabolites in wild individuals of P. andrieuxii; our results show that while the content of betulinic acid in plant leaves bears no apparent relation to plant ontogeny, the content of urechitol A in root tissue is clearly related to plant development.