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 t More
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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