Chemistry and antioxidative factors in rosemary and sage

Rosemary and sage are common spices used in food. In our recent search of cancer chemopreventive agents from spices, the alcohol extracts of rosemary and sage showed strong antumorigenic activities. Rosemary and sage extracts contain active antioxidative factors such as phenolic diterpenes, flavonoids and phenolic acids. Here we discuss chromatographic methods used to separate and purify compounds from these spices and MS and NMR spectrometry to identify the isolated compounds. Several new compounds isolated from sage were determined to be 6-O-caffeoyl-β-D-fructofuranosyl-(2 → 1)-β-glucopyranoside, 1-O-caffeoyl-β-D-apiofuranosyl-(1 → 6)-β-D-glucopyranoside, 1-O-p-hydroxybenzoyl-β-D-apiofuranosyl-(1 → 6)-β-D-glucopyranoside, 1-O-(3-methyl-2,3,4-trihydroxybutyl)-6-O-feruloyl-β-D-glucop yranoside, 4-hydroxyacetophenone 4-O-[5-O-(3,5-dimethoxy-4-hydroxybenzoyl)-β-D-apiofrunosyl]-(1 → 2)-β-D-glucopyranoside and 1-O-[2-hydroxy-5-(2-hydroxyethyl)phenyl] -6-O-trans-caffeoyl-β-D-glucopyranoside.