Constituents of the ripe fruits of Nauclea latifolia Sm. (Rubiaceae) and their antileishmanial activities

Subject Areas : Analytical Assessments of Bioactive Compounds

Argan Kelly Nkwenti Wonkam ¹ , Cyrille Armel Ngansop Njanpa ² , Joël E.T. Ateba ³ , Yannick S.F. Fongang ⁴ , Angelbert Awantu ⁵ , J.J.K. Bankeu ⁶ , Jean Rodolph Chouna ⁷ , Fabrice F. Boyom ⁸ , Norbert Sewald ⁹ , Bruno Lenta ¹⁰

1 - Department of Chemistry, Higher Teacher Training College, University of Yaoundé 1, P.O. Box 47, Yaoundé, Cameroon|Department of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Yaoundé 1, P.O. Box 812, Yaoundé, Cameroon
2 - Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Yaoundé 1, P.O. Box 812, Yaoundé, Cameroon
3 - Department of Process Engineering, National Higher Polytechnic School, University of Douala, P.O. Box 2701, Douala, Cameroon
4 - Department of Chemistry, Higher Teacher Training College, University of Maroua, P.O. Box 55, Maroua, Cameroon
5 - Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, The University of Bamenda, P.O. Box 39, Bambili, Cameroon
6 - Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, The University of Bamenda, P.O. Box 39, Bambili, Cameroon
7 - Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Dschang, P.O. Box 67, Dschang, Cameroon
8 - Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Yaoundé 1, P.O. Box 812, Yaoundé, Cameroon
9 - Organic and Bioorganic Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Bielefeld University, D-33501, Bielefeld, Germany
10 - Department of Chemistry, Higher Teacher Training College, University of Yaoundé 1, P.O. Box 47, Yaoundé, Cameroon

Received: 2022-08-22 Accepted : 2022-12-20 Published : 2022-12-01

Keywords: leishmaniasis, <i>Nauclea latifolia</i>, Rubiaceae, Ripe fruits, Cytotoxicity,

Abstract :

The MeOH extract of the ripe fruits of Nauclea latifolia Sm. (Rubiaceae) showed potent antileishmanial activity in vitro during preliminary screening (IC50 = 2.20 µg/mL) against Leishmania donovani 1S (MHOM/SD/62/1S) promastigotes. Three of the four fractions of this extract showed moderate to good activities (7.06 ≤ IC50 ≤ 91.21 µg/mL) on the same strain. The purification of the fractions through CC yielded fifteen compounds whose structures were established based on their MS and NMR data. All the isolated compounds were assessed for their antileishmanial activity against L. donovani and for their cytotoxicity towards Raw 264.7 macrophage cells. 2,6-Dimethoxybenzoquinone (1) and hederagenin (6) showed good antileishmanial activity with IC50 values of 9.94 and 19.3 µM, respectively. Compound 1 was not selective, while compound 6 displayed a good selectivity towards raw 264.7 macrophage cells (SI > 7.82). These results indicate that the extract from N. latifolia fruits could be considered as a source of leishmaniacidal agents.

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