Planta Med 2012; 78 - PI239
DOI: 10.1055/s-0032-1320926

Compounds with antileishmanial activity isolated from the stems of Pentalinon andrieuxii

L Pan 1, CM Lezama-Davila 2, AP Isaac-Marquez 3, JR Fuchs 1, AR Satoskar 2, AD Kinghorn 1
  • 1College of Pharmacy, Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy
  • 2Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
  • 3Centro de Investigacion en Enfermedades Tropicales, Universidad Autonoma de Campeche, 24030, Campeche, Mexico

Bioassay-guided fractionation was conducted on a chloroform-soluble extract of the stems of Pentalinon andrieuxii, a Mayan traditional antileishmanial plant collected in a rainforest region of Mexico, using a Leishmania (L.) mexicana strain of parasites. This led to the isolation of five C21 sterol derivatives, neridienone A (1), 6,7-dihydroneridienone A (2), cybisterol (3), 12β-hydroxypregn-4-ene-3,20-dione (4), and pentalinonoside (5), two coumarins, fraxidin (6) and fraxetol (7), as well as betulinic acid (8) and (+)-pinoresinol (9). All the isolates were evaluated in vitro for their ability to inhibit the growth of promastigotes of L. mexicana. Compounds 1-4, and 6 were found to exhibit notable leishmanicidal activity in this assay. (Supported by grant RC4 AI092624, from NIAID, NIH).