Antimalarial prenylated chalcones from the twigs of Dorstenia barteri var. subtriangularis

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The ever widening level of Plasmodium falciparum resistance to antimalarials has led to the search of alternative therapies.In this context, any resources that can help alleviate the burden of the deadly malaria; including the search for new plant-derived biologically active ingredients are worthy of investigation.Amongst these, naturally occurring and synthetic chalcones have demonstrated promising potencies.In the present study, two diprenylated chalcones Bartericin A 1 and B 2, and four known natural products, stipulin 3, 4-hydroxylonchocarpin 4, isobavachalcone 5 and kanzonol B 6 were isolated from the twigs of Dorstenia barteri var.subtriangularis (Moraceae) by means of chromatographic methods.The structures of the purified compounds were elucidated by spectroscopic methods, mainly 1D and 2D-NMR spectroscopy.These compounds (1-6) were evaluated in culture against the W2 strain of P. falciparum.The evaluated compounds were found to be active in vitro against P. falciparum, 1, 3 and 4 demonstrating particular potencies with relatively low IC 50 values (2.15 µM, 5.13 µM and 3.36 µM respectively).The observed activities confirmed the chalcones as potential leads for the development of antimalarials.