Bioguided isolation of antiplasmodial secondary metabolites from Persea americana Mill. (Lauraceae)

The antiplasmodium assay-guided investigation of the roots, stem bark, and leaves of Persea americana Mill. led to the isolation of a new fatty alcohol, perseatriol (1), along with six known compounds (2–7). Their structures were elucidated based on the analysis of their NMR and MS data. All crude extracts and fractions exhibited good antiplasmodial activity on Plasmoduim falciparum 3D7 with IC50 values ranging from 0.76 to 10.5 μg/mL; they also displayed cytotoxicity against HeLa cells with low selectivity indexes (SIs). A preliminary Plasmodium lactate dehydrogenase (pLDH) assay was also performed on the isolated compounds. 9,9′-Di-O-feruloyl-5,5′-dimethoxysecoisolariciresinol (4) turned out to be non-toxic and displayed the best activities on P. falciparum with an IC50 value of 0.05 μM, comparable to the reference drug chloroquine with an IC50 value of 0.03 μM. Furthermore, besides compound 4, this work reports the first isolation of lutein (2) and scopoletin (3) from P. americana. The crude extracts of roots, stem bark, and leaves of P. americana, their fractions and compounds completely suppressed the growth of P. falciparum. The observed activity supports the use of P. americana in folk medicine for the treatment of malaria.