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CHASTE-TREE
Source: Vitex agnus-castus L. (Family
Verbenaceae).
Common names:Agnus castus, chasteberry,
chaste-tree, monk’s pepper, and vitex.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Deciduous shrub growing to 6 m in height;
leaves palmately compound; leaflets linear
lanceolate, entire, white tomentose beneath,
glabrous above, to 10 cm long; flowers blue,
purple, or pink in spike-like panicles; indige-
nous to the Mediterranean region, Crimea,
Central Asia and western Asia to northwest
India; naturalized in north America (Florida,
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana,
Arkansas, Texas, southeast Oklahoma, north
to Maryland), Nigeria and northern Brazil.
Part used is the dried fruit (a small, brownish-
to olive-black drupe) with four seeds.
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
Fruits contain the fatty acid linoleic acid^1 and
the flavone apigenin;^2 other flavonoids in the
fruits and leaves include casticin, vitexin,
isovitexin, orientin, isoorientin, xyloside;
others include penduletin, 6-hydroxykaemp-
ferol-3,6,7,4^0 -tetramethylether, chrysosple-
nol-D, luteolin-7-glucoside, homoorientin,
and so on;3–6iridoid glycosides in the leaf,
fruit, and flower include aucubin and agnuside
and eurostoside in the leaves;7,8other iridoids
in the leaves, flowers and twigs include agnu-
castosides A, B, and C and mussaenosidic
acid;^9 essential oil of the fruits, leaves, and
flowers contains monoterpenes (limonene,
a-pinene, 1,8-cineole);^10 in essential oil of
leaves also contains b-pinene, citronellol,
myrcene, linalool, sabinene, and others; ses-
quiterpenes in the essential oil of the flowers,
fruit, and leaves include b-caryophylline
oxide, caryophylline, farnesene, and others;
diterpenes in the fruit include vitexilactone,
rotundifuran (MCKENNA;WICHTL), and others;^11
triterpenoids include 3b-acetoxyolean-12-
en-27-oic acid; 2a,3a-dihydroxyolean-5,12-
dien-28-oic acid; 2b,3a-diacetoxyolean-5,
12-dien-28-oic acid; and 2a,3b-diacetoxy-
18-hydroxyolean-5,12-dien-28-oic acid;^12 ke-
tosteroids detected in flower extracts include
progesterone, 17a-hydroxyprogesterone, tes-
tosterone, and epitestosterone; leaf extracts
yield andro-stenedione.^13
Chaste-tree 177
