الفهرس 
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Abstract
The work presented in this thesis is further contribution to the phytochemical investigation of the ornamental plant namely Erythrina caffra Thunb. family Fabaceae as a representative of Erythrina species cultivated in Egypt. The concept of bioassay guided isolation of cytotoxic agents were adopted.
Introduction
Genus Erythrina comprises over 110 species of red flowered trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants found throughout tropical and subtropical regions of the world. It is very rich in secondary metabolites, one of the major classes is flavonoids. The latter are reputed for various pharmacological activities including anti bacterial, cytotoxic, anti plasmodial, various enzymatic inhibitory activities verifying their folkloric use. Documentation of the SAR activities of the important classes of flavonoids are presented (Tables 2-4 and Figures 1-2).
Aim of the work
Numerous publications were reported for different Erythrina species, however few were carried on Erythrina caffra Thunb. , including the in vitro antibacterial activity of the crude extract and some of the isolated flavonoids from the stem bark.
Recent studies on Erythrina caffra Thunb. , the african coral tree, revealed that flavonoids and alkaloids are isolated from stem bark, flowers or seeds. On the other hand, literature surveys lack information about the constituents of the root; Because phytoalexins released from roots of legumes to prevent growth of roots of competing plant are a promising source of anticancer agents, examination of the root composition of Erythrina caffra Thunb. and guided fractionation by cytotoxic acivity were the main objective of this thesis.
Phytochemical investigation of Erythrina caffraThunb.
I: Phytochemical screening of root and stem of Erythrina caffra Thunb.
HPTLC screening of the methylene chloride extracts of rhytidome, bark and wood of both root and stem (Figure 5, page 39), revealed that rhytidome is the richest part in non-alkaloidal phenolics while bark and wood are rich in alkaloids .
Few publications reported the isolation of alkaloids and flavonoids from the stem bark of Erythrina caffra Thunb. , however, no information about the constituents of the root were available. Accordingly, the work in this thesis was concentrated on the non- alkaloidal phenolic constituents of the root.