In vitro antimalarial activity of biflavonoids from Wikstroemia indica.

In our investigation of in vitro antimalarial screening of medicinal herbal extracts, the n-BuOH extract from the root of Wikstroemia indica showed a potent inhibitory effect. Fractionation of the active extract led to the isolation of two biflavonoids, sikokianin B ( 1) and sikokianin C ( 2) with IC (50) values 0.54 microg/mL and 0.56 microg/mL, respectively, against the chloroquine-resistant strain of Plasmodium falciparum. This is the first report of the biological activity of 1 and 2. As the structure of l has remained unsettled, we confirmed the conformation by (1)H- and (13)C-NMR.