Secondary metabolites from Chamaedora tepejilote (Palmae) are active against Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Due to the emergence of multi‐drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains, there is an urgent need to search for new antimycobacterial drugs. The present work describes the bioactivity‐guided fractionation of Chamaedora tepejilote hexane extract which led to the isolation and the characterization of squalene, farnesol, methylic ester of hexadecanoic acid, β‐sitosterol and ursolic acid. Activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv, determined by radiorespirometric Bactec assay, showed ursolic acid, squalene and farnesol to produce a M. tuberculosis growth inhibition of 99% at a concentration of 100 µg/mL. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.