Antiplasmodial and antileishmanial flavonoids from Mundulea sericea

Five known compounds (1–5) were isolated from the extract of Mundulea sericea leaves. Similar investigation of the roots of this plant afforded an additional three known compounds (6–8). The structures were elucidated using NMR spectroscopic and mass spectrometric analyses. The absolute configuration of 1 was established using ECD spectroscopy. In an antiplasmodial activity assay, compound 1 showed good activity with an IC50 of 2.0 μM against chloroquine-resistant W2, and 6.6 μM against the chloroquine-sensitive 3D7 strains of Plasmodium falciparum. Some of the compounds were also tested for antileishmanial activity. Dehydrolupinifolinol (2) and sericetin (5) were active against drug-sensitive Leishmania donovani (MHOM/IN/83/AG83) with IC50 values of 9.0 and 5.0 μM, respectively. In a cytotoxicity assay, lupinifolin (3) showed significant activity on BEAS-2B (IC50 4.9 μM) and HePG2 (IC50 10.8 μM) human cell lines. All the other compounds showed low cytotoxicity (IC50 > 30 μM) against human lung adenocarcinoma cells (A549), human liver cancer cells (HepG2), lung/bronchus cells (epithelial virus transformed) (BEAS-2B) and immortal human hepatocytes (LO2)