Antiparasitic, nematicidal and antifouling constituents from Juniperus berries

A bioassay-guided fractionation of Juniperus procera berries yielded antiparasitic, nematicidal and antifouling constituents, including a wide range of known abietane, pimarane and labdane diterpenes. Among these, abieta-7,13-diene (1) demonstrated in vitro antimalarial activity against Plasmodium falciparum D6 and W2 strains (IC₅₀ = 1.9 and 2.0 μg/mL, respectively), while totarol (6), ferruginol (7) and 7β-hydroxyabieta-8,13-diene-11,12-dione (8) inhibited Leishmania donovani promastigotes with IC₅₀ values of 3.5-4.6 μg/mL. In addition, totarol demonstrated nematicidal and antifouling activities against Caenorhabditis elegans and Artemia salina at a concentration of 80 μg/mL and 1 μg/mL, respectively. The resinous exudate of J. virginiana afforded known antibacterial E-communic acid (4) and 4-epi-abietic acid (5), while the volatile oil from its trunk wood revealed large quantities of cedrol (9). Using GC/MS, the two known abietanes totarol (6) and ferruginol (7) were identified from the berries of J. procera, J. excelsa and J. phoenicea. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.