Chemical Constituents and Biological Activities of Garcinia Cuneifolia, Mesua Beccariana and Mesua Ferrea

Investigations on the stem bark of Garcinia cuneifolia, Mesua beccariana and Mesua ferrea (Guttiferae) have resulted in the isolation of eight compounds. The structures of these compounds were elucidated by using spectroscopic techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), mass spectroscopy (MS), infra red (IR), ultraviolet (UV) and also by comparison with previous reports. The stem bark of G. cuneifolia collected from Sarawak, yielded three new compounds: a new xanthone, cuneifolin, a new triterpenoid benzoate lactone, 3-benzoyloxyoleane-19-en-13,28-olide and a new aromatic compound, 3-methoxy-4-heptyloxy cinnamic acid. Beside that, there are two more known compounds have been isolated, rubraxanthone and stigmasterol. From the stem bark of M. beccarianna, a new hexatrione, 6-(19-hydroxy-20-oxo-19-phenyl-propyl)-3-methyl-8,8-bis-(11,16- methyl-but-10,15-enyl)-2,5H-naphthalene-1,4,7-trione, and a suggested compound, 10[2,4,6-tris-(14,25,36-methyl-but-13,24,35-enyl)-(3,17;5,28)terphenyl- 1-yloxy]-butyric acid methyl ester, together with two known triterpene, friedelin and stigmasterol were isolated. M. ferrea gave the common steroidal triterpenes friedelin and stigmasterol. The essential oil was obtained by hydrodistillation using fresh flowers of M. ferrea (collected from UPM, Serdang) and analysed using GC-MS spectrometry. The main essential oil component is germacrene D (48.96%). Both the crude extracts of G. cuneifolia and M. beccariana (stem bark) were not active towards CEM-SS cells line, except for the hexane extract of M. beccariana, which showed weak cytotoxic effect. Two pure compounds, stigmasterol and friedelin, together with the essential oil from the flower of M. ferrea were found to be inactive towards this bioactivity. The antimicrobial activity test against five types of bacteria i.e., Bacillus subtilis mutant, Bacillus subtilis wild type, Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), S. typhimurium and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 60690) were also carried out on the crude extracts, pure compounds and essential oil. The crude ethyl acetate and methanol extracts of the stem bark of G. cuneifolia were found to have significant activity. However, both stigmasterol and friedelin, gave no activity against all the pathogenic bacterial used. The results showed that all the samples tested gave no activity against S. typhimurium. The methanol extract of M. beccariana produced significant activity against Bacillus subtilis, ATCC 60690 and MRSA. The oil of M. ferrea showed the result was only active towards MRSA. The crude hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts of G. cuneifolia were screened for larvicidal activity. The crude hexane extract of G. cuneifolia showed moderate activity against larvae Aedes aegypti, followed by ethyl acetate and methanol extracts. The crude hexane extract of M. beccariana has the highest activity towards the larvae, followed by the chloroform extract. The acetone extract showed weak activity towards the larvae. Lastly, the crude methanol extract gave no activity towards the larvae of Aedes aegypti. The result also showed that the larvae of Aedes aegypti is highly susceptible to the essential oil of the flowers of M. ferrea.

Preview PDF 549667_FSAS_2005_1.pdf Download (136kB)

Actions (login required)

View Item