Pyranocarbazoles from Murraya koenigii (L.) Spreng. as antimicrobial agents

Abstract

The bioassay guided fractionation of methanolic extract of Murraya koenigii (L.) Spreng. leaves resulted in the isolation of seven pyranocarbazoles. These were evaluated against four bacterial strains and ten Candida sp. including two matched pair of fluconazole sensitive/resistant clinical isolates. Out of seven, three i.e. Koenine (mk279), Koenigine (mk309) and Mahanine (mk347) exhibited significant antibacterial activity MIC90 3.12–12.5 μg/mL against bacterial strains Streptococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumonia compared with standard drug Kanamycin MIC90 12.5 μg/mL. However, only mk309 was found active against variety of Candida species MIC90 12.5–100 μg/mL. It was observed that hydroxylation at C-6 and C-7 positions in the studied pyranocarbazoles activate the bioactivity. Simultaneously, decrease in Log P value compares with −H and −O−CH3 substituted derivatives. The study is focused on selective antifungal and antibacterial activity of pyranocarbazoles on bacterial strains S. aureus, K. pneumonia and variety of Candida species with structure activity relationship observations.

Keywords:

• Pyranocarbazoles
• antifungal
• antibacterial
• carbazole alkaloids
• Streptococcus aureus
• Klebsiella pneumonia

Acknowledgements

The first three authors (TJ² & RM) acknowledge the CSIR and UGC, New Delhi for their fellowship. The authors gratefully acknowledge to SAIF, CSIR-CDRI, Lucknow for HPLC, MS and NMR analysis. The CSIR-CDRI communication number is 9467.