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Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases
U.S. Department of Agriculture
  1. Home
  2. Allium cepa

Allium cepa (Liliaceae)

Common Names
Onion; Shallot
How this plant is used
Food
View the list of ubiquitous chemicals
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List of plant chemicals.
Click on column headings to sort table by that column. *Unless otherwise noted all references are to (Duke, 1992)
Chemical Name Activity Count Plant Part Low Parts Per Million High Parts Per Million Standard Deviation Reference
TYROSINE 8 Bulb 290.0 3161.0 -1.00 USDA's Ag Handbook 8 and sequelae)
VALINE 3 Bulb 270.0 2943.0 -1.00 *
VANILLIC-ACID 24 Bulb 258.0 1.00 *
VIT-B-6 0 Bulb 1.0 18.0 USDA's Ag Handbook 8 and sequelae)
WATER 0 Bulb 866000.0 918000.0 0.78 *
WATER 0 Leaf 922000.0 0.57 CRC Handbook of Medicinal Herbs and/or CRC Handbook of Proximate Analyses
XYLITOL 10 Bulb Counsell, J. N., Roberton, D. J. 1976. Xylitol-A Sweetener Which is Kind to the Teeth. Food Process Ind., 45(54): 24-26.
XYLOSE 3 Bulb Sinha, A. 1959. Chemical Examination of Allium cepa. I. Glycosidic and Sugar Fractions. Indian J. Appl. Chem., 22: 89-91.
ZEAXANTHIN 5 Bulb Granado, F., Olmedilla, B., Blanco, I., Rojas-Hidalgo, E. 1992. Carotenoid Composition in Raw and Cooked Spanish Vegetables. J. Agr. Food Chem., 40(11): 2135-2140.
ZINC 77 Bulb 2.0 53.0 1.41 *
ZINC 77 Seed 34.0 -0.32 *
ZIRCONIUM 0 Bulb 0.8 1.0 *
View the list of ubiquitous chemicals
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List of plant activities.
Click on column headings to sort table by that column. *Unless otherwise noted all references are to (Duke, 1992)
Activity Chemical Count Reference
Hyperuricemic 1 Martindale's 28th
Hypnotic 3 Martindale's 29th
Hypoammonemic 1 Jeffery B. Harborne and H. Baxter, eds. 1983. Phytochemical Dictionary. A Handbook of Bioactive Compounds from Plants. Taylor & Frost, London. 791 pp.
Hypoarginanemic 1 Martindale's 29th
Hypocalcemic 1 Borchard, R. E., Barnes, C. D., and Eltherton, L. G. 1991. Drug Dosage in Laboratory Animals: A Handbook. (3rd Ed.) The Telford Press, Inc., P. O. Box 287, Caldwell NJ 07006.
Hypocholesterolemic 27 *
Hypoglycemic 17 *
Hypolipemic 1 *
Hypolipidemic 4 *
Hypotensive 17 Cunane, S. and Thompson, L. U., eds. 1995. Flaxseed in Human Nutrition. AOCS Press, Champaign IL. 384 pp.
Hypothermic 1 *
Hypouricemic 1 *
ICAM-1-Inhibitor 1 *
Ileorelaxant 1 *
Immunomodulator 12 Economic & Medicinal Plant Research, 6: 189.
Immunostimulant 13 Cunane, S. and Thompson, L. U., eds. 1995. Flaxseed in Human Nutrition. AOCS Press, Champaign IL. 384 pp.
Immunosuppressant 3 *
Inflammatory 1 *
iNOS-Inhibitor 2 *
Inotropic 2 *