Antimicrobial activity of rhizomes of Ferulago trachycarpa Boiss. and bioguided isolation of active coumarin constituents

Ferulago trachycarpa (Apiaceae) is a plant used traditionally for its sedative, digestive, carminative and aphrodisiac properties with distribution in West, Southwest and South Anatolian part of Turkey. In this study the antimicrobial activities of fractionally n-hexane, dichloromethane, methanol and only methanol extracts from rhizomes of F. trachycarpa were screened against Stapylococcus aureus ATCC 6538, S. epidermidis ATCC 12228, Escherichia coli ATCC 8739, Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC 4352, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853, Proteus mirabilis ATCC 14153, Enterococcus feacalis ATCC 29212 bacterial strains and fungal strains such as Candida albicans ATCC 10231, C. tropicalis ATCC 750 and C. parapsilosis ATCC 22019 by microdilution method. All extracts have been shown to possess antimicrobial activities against bacteria and fungal strains and according to the antimicrobial results, the isolation of the active constituents was made from the most active n-hexane and dichloromethane extracts. So, four pure compounds are known as coumarin derivatives, crenulatin (6-formyl-7-methoxycoumarin), suberosin (7-methoxy-6-prenylcoumarin), marmesin senecioate ((-)-prantschimgin) as dihydrofuranocoumarin derivative and ulopterol [6- (2’, 3’-dihydroxy-3’-methylbutyl)-7-methoxy-coumarin] were isolated. Crenulatin (6-formyl-7-methoxycoumarin), suberosin (7-methoxy-6-prenylcoumarin), marmesin senecioate ((-)-prantschimgin) which are pure compounds demonstrated antifungal activity with 625 mg/L MIC against C. albicans and antibacterial activity with 1250 mg/L MIC against S. aureus (MRSA). These results indicate that extracts and pure compounds obtained from Ferulago trachycarpa could be a potential for pharmaceutical products which have antimicrobial activity.