Biological activities of the chemical constituents of Erythrina stricta and Erythrina subumbrans.

Phytochemical investigation of the hexane and CH2Cl2 extracts of Erythrina stricta roots and E. subumbrans stems led to the isolation of six pterocarpans, one flavanone, one isoflavone, two alkaloids, five triterpenes, six steroids and alkyl trans-ferulates. The structures of all known compounds were determined on the basis of spectroscopic evidence. Sophoradiol (15), a mixture of stigmast-4-en-3-one (19) and stigmasta-4,22-dien-3-one (20), lupeol (21), cycloeucalenol (22), a mixture of 3beta-hydroxystigmast-5-en-7-one (23) and 3beta-hydroxystigmast-5,22-dien-7-one (24) and melilotigenin C (25) were first isolated from the genus Erythrina. The isolated compounds were evaluated for antiplasmodial activity, antimycobacterial activity and cytotoxicity. Among the tested compounds, 5-hydroxysophoranone (8) exhibited the highest antiplasmodial activity against Plasmodium falciparum (IC50 2.5 microg/mL). Compound 8, erystagallin A (5), erycristagallin (7) and erysubin F (10) showed the same level of antimycobacterial activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MIC 12.5 microg/mL). For cytotoxicity, erybraedin A (2) showed the highest activity against the NCI-H187 and BC cells (IC50 2.1 and 2.9 microg/mL, respectively), whereas 10 exhibited the highest activity against the KB cells (IC50 4.5 microg/mL).