Ziziphus is a genus of about 40 species of spiny shrubs and small trees in the buckthorn family, Rhamnaceae, distributed in the warm-temperate and subtropical regions throughout the world. The generic name is derived from zizfum or zizafun, the Persian word for Z. lotus. They are Rhamnaceae, near to the Buckthorn genus.
Eight flavonoid compounds were isolated from the seeds of ZiziphusjujubaMill var. Spinosa. On the basis of chemical and spectral analyses their structures were elucidated as swertish (1), puerarin (2), 6‴-feruloylspinosin (3), apigenin-6-C-β-d-glucopyranoside (4), spinosin (5), 6‴-feruloylisospinosin (6), isospinosin (7), and isovitexin-2″-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (8). Flavonoids 6 and 7 are novel compounds. Rotamers exist for compounds 1, 3 and 5, which are reported for the first time. Compounds 2, 4 and 8 were isolated from this plant for the first time. Spinosin and swertish possess significant sedative activity.