Leishmanicidal phenolic compounds derived from Dalbergia cultrata

Abstract

Leishmaniasis is a protozoan tropical infection that is estimated to be more than 0.3 million new cases occur annually worldwide. A novel phenolic compound, cultratin A (1), was isolated as a leishmanicidal constituent from the timber of Dalbergia cultrata, along with three known neoflavanoids (2, 3, 4), two benzofurans (5, 6), and two phenolic compounds (7, 8). Their structures were determined using spectral methods. Among them, a new compound (1) and 4-(S)-methoxydalbergione (2) showed effective leishmanicidal activities (IC₅₀: 2.0 and 2.6 μM, respectively), while compound 8 showed moderate activity (IC₅₀: 11 μM). The cytotoxicity of compounds 1 and 2 was also weaker than that of the other compounds.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Leishmania
• Dalbergia cultrata
• yin-daik
• Myanmar
• leguminosae

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to extend their gratitude to the Ministry of Forestry of Myanmar for providing the plant sample.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 15K18894.