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New sources and antifungal activity of sesquiterpene lactones
A F Barrero1, J E Oltra, M Alvarez
1Departamento de Qumica Orgnica, Instituto de Biotecnologa, Facultad de Ciencias, Campus Fuentenueva s/n, 18071 Granada, Spain. afbarre@goliat.ugr.es
Abstract:
In the search for new sources of sesquiterpene lactones, six Centaurea species have been analyzed. The activity against the fungus Cunninghamella echinulata of (+)-cnicin (1) and (+)-salonitenolide (2), isolated from the Centaurea plants, as well as that of (+)-costunolide (3), (-)-dehydrocostuslactone (4), (-)-lychnopholide (5) and (-)-eremantholide C (6), has been evaluated. Compounds 3 and 4 showed noticeable EC50 values, whilst more polar lactones were inactive. These results suggest that a relatively low polarity is one of the molecular requirements for the antifungal activity of sesquiterpene lactones.