The Geography of Phytochemical Races

4.4 South Pacifi c 199
Fig. 4.11 Compounds 342–346, polyphenolic compounds from Humulus lupulus, hops
(2000) paper: xanthogalenol [343] (the common name derives from the cultivar
“Galena” used in the study), xanthohumol D [344]; and xanthohumol E [345].
Of chemotaxonomic signifi cance was the fi nding that the three 4′-O-methylchalcones
observed in the survey (>120 plants), xanthogalenol, 4′-O-methylxanthohumol
[346], and 4′,6′-di-O-methylchalconaringenin, occurred only in wild H. lupulus var.
cordifolius plants collected in the Missouri-Mississippi River Basin and in their
descendants (cultivars derived from var. cordifolius) and in Japanese wild plants.
The absence of these compounds from European and southeastern North American
members of the species suggests, as pointed out by Stevens et al. (2000), that at
least two separate lineages of H. lupulus exist. The North American members are
considered to resemble the ancestral form, which means that 4′-O-methylation is an
ancestral feature that was subsequently lost by European hops (or by the ancestor
from which the European line arose). Although there were points of difference, the
results obtained in the fl avonoid survey are in overall agreement with those obtained
in a study of restriction fragment-length polymorphisms of ribosomal DNA (Pillay
and Kenny, 1996).
4.4 South Pacifi c
4.4.1 Eucryphia (Eucryphiaceae)
Eucryphia, the sole genus in Eucryphiaceae, consists of six (Mabberley, 1997,
p. 270) or seven species (Wollenweber et al., 2000) and can be found occurring
on the Australian mainland, in Tasmania, and in southern South America. Specifi -
cally, E. cordifolia Cav. and E. glutinosa Cav. occur in Chile, E. lucida (Labill.)