Planta Med 2013; 79 - P87
DOI: 10.1055/s-0033-1336529

Phytochemical, Antiparasitic and Antimicrobial Investigations of Terminalia brownii

F Machumi 1, JO Midiwo 2, MR Jacob 1, SI Khan 1, 3, BL Tekwani 1, 4, LA Walker 1, 4, I Muhammad 1
  • 1National Center for Natural Products Research, and Departments of
  • 3Pharmacognosy and
  • 4Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, USA
  • 2Department of Chemistry, University of Nairobi, P.O. Box 30197 – 00100, Nairobi, Kenya

Terminalia brownii is an African medicinal plant used to treat parasitic and microbial infections [1]. Chromatographic separations on the stem bark extract aimed at identifying the active components led to isolation of a new oleanane-type triterpenoid, along with seven known oleanane-type triterpenoids and seven ellagic acid derivatives. The new compound was identified using spectroscopic methods as 3β,24-O-ethylidenyl-2α,19α-dihydroxyolean-12-en-28-oic acid (1). The compounds were evaluated for their antiplasmodial, antileishmanial and antimicrobial activities giving the most potent antiplasmodial activity with IC50 values of 2.76 µg/mL for 23-galloylarjunolic acid (2) against P. falciparum W2 strain and the most potent antimicrobial activity with IC50 values of 0.32 µg/mL for diellagic lactone (3) against C. glabrata.

Acknowledgements: The authors thank US Department of Defense CDMRP, grant No. W81XWH-09, the NIH, NIAID, Division of AIDS, grant No. AI 27094, and the USDA Agricultural Research Service Specific Cooperative Agreement No. 58 – 6408 – 02 – 1-612, for financial support. Reference: [1] Mbwambo ZH, Moshi MJ, et al. (2007) BMT Complement Altern Med, 7: 9 – 11.