Isolation of antiplasmodial anthraquinones from Kniphofia ensifolia, and synthesis and structure-activity relationships of related compounds
- Bioorg Med Chem. 2014 Jan 1;22(1):269-76. doi: 10.1016/j.bmc.2013.11.032.
- 1. Department of Chemistry and the Virginia Tech Center for Drug Discovery, M/C 0212, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States.
- 2. Department of Biochemistry and the Virginia Tech Center for Drug Discovery, M/C 0308, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States.
- 3. Natural Products Discovery Institute, 3805 Old Easton Road, Doylestown, PA 18902, United States.
- 4. Department of Chemistry and the Virginia Tech Center for Drug Discovery, M/C 0212, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States. Electronic address: [email protected].
Bioassay-guided separation of the South African plant Kniphofia ensifolia for antiplasmodial activity led to the isolation of two new Anthraquinones, named kniphofiones A and B (3 and 4), together with three known bioactive anthraquinone monomers (1, 2 and 5), and four known bisanthraquinones (6-9). The structures of the two new compounds were elucidated based on analyses of their 1D and 2D NMR spectra and mass spectrometric data. The dimeric compounds 6 and 7 displayed the strongest antiplasmodial activity among all the isolated compounds, with IC₅₀ values of 0.4 ± 0.1 and 0.2 ± 0.1 μM, respectively. The two new compounds displayed modest activities, with IC₅₀ values of 26 ± 4 and 9 ± 1 μM, respectively. Due to the synthetic accessibility of the new compounds and the increased activity shown by the dimeric compounds, a structure-activity relationship study was conducted. As a result, one analogue of kniphofione B (4), the caffeic acid derivative of aloe-emodin, was found to have the highest activity among all the aloe-emodin derivatives, with an IC50 value of 1.3 ± 0.2 μM.