The chemical study of Erythrina livingstoniana has led to the isolation of three new flavanones namely 5,7,3'-trihydroxy-4'-methoxy-5'-formylflavanone (erylivingstone A) (1), 5,7,3'-trihydroxy-5'-(2-hydroxy-3-methylbut-3-enyl)-4'-methoxyflavanone (erylivingstone B) (2) and 5,7,3'-trihydroxy-5'-(3-hydroxy-3-methyl-trans-but-1-enyl)-4'-methoxyflavanone (erylivingstone C) (3) together with three known compounds (4-6). Their structures were elucidated on the basis of NMR data, HRMS(n) fragmentation pathway and by comparison with literature data. We evaluated the antibacterial efficacies and free-radical scavenging potential of the isolated compounds (1-6). The typical environmental strains of Gram-positive Bacillus subtilis, Gram-negative Escherichia coli, as well as against the clinically important Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes and E. coli (risk-group 2) were used for the antibacterial assay. Compounds 5 and 6 exhibited the most pronounced efficacy against tested environmental bacteria as well as against the pathogenic strain of E. coli. Compound 3 was also quite active against these three bacterial strains. The isolated compounds showed weak radical scavenging properties with compound 6 being the most active, followed by compounds 2, 3 and 5.
Keywords: Antibacterial; Antioxidant; Erylivingstone A–C; Erythrina livingstoniana; Fabaceae; Flavanone; HRMS(n); NMR.
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