Abstract: To study the chemical constituents of South Africa medicinal plants Sceletium tortuosum.Compounds were isolated and purified by various column chromatography,recrystallization,and HPLC.Their structure were elucidated by physicochemical property and spectral analysis.11 compounds were isolated from the ethyl acetate fraction of S. tortuosum and identified as 3′,4′-dimethoxy［1,1′-biphenyl］-4-ol (1),N-(4-hydroxyphenethyl)isobutyramide (2),4-hydroxyacetophenone(3),1H-indole-3-carboxadehyde (4),7-keto-stigmasterol (5),7-keto-β-sitosterol (6),loliolide (7),3,5,6-trihydroxy-7-megastigmen-9-one (8),noreugenin (9),cyclo(L-Pro-L-Ala) (10),N-trans-feruloyl-3-methyldopamine (11),respectively.Compounds 1-11 were obtained from S. tortuosum for the first time,compounds 1 and 2 were new natural products,their hydrogen and carbon assignment were reported for the first time.

Key words: South Africa, medicinal plants, Sceletium tortuosum, chemical constituents, systematic separation