Antileishmanial, antibacterial and cytotoxicity activity of the extracts, fractions, and compounds from the fruits and stem bark extracts of Pentadesma butyracea Sabine.

The search for antileishmanial plants used in traditional medicine led to the choice of CH₂Cl₂–MeOH (1:1) crude extract of the fruits and stem bark of Pentadesma butyracea Sabine (Clusiaceae) which displayed good activity in vitro against Leishmania donovani 1S (MHOM/SD/62/1S) promastigotes during preliminary screening with IC₅₀ values 5.96 and 26.43 μg mL⁻¹, respectively. The fractionation of both extracts using flash chromatography yielded active fractions with IC₅₀ values ranging from 2.71 to 18.88 μg mL⁻¹. Fourteen compounds (1–14) were isolated from the obtained fractions using successive column chromatographies and their structures were elucidated based on the analysis of their NMR and MS data. Daphnifolin (1), epicathechin (3), α-mangostin (9) and 9-hydroxycalabaxanthone (14) exhibited potent antileismanial activity against L. donovani 1S (MHOM/SD/62/1S) promastigotes with IC₅₀ values of 2.01, 9.09, 3.37, and 6.87 μg mL⁻¹, respectively and good selectivity towards Raw 264.7 macrophage cells (SI > 2.4). Extracts, fractions and some isolates were also assessed in vitro for their antibacterial activity against six bacterial strains [Salmonella typhi (CPC), Enterobacter cloacae (CPC), Pseudomonas aeruginosa HM801, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 43300, Streptococcus pneumoniae ATCC 491619, Escherichia coli ATCC 25322] using serial microdilution method. Among the tested samples, the stem bark extract of P. butyracea as well as compounds 2 and 8 showed good to moderate activity against the aforementioned bacterial strains with MIC ≤ 250 μg mL⁻¹. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]