Chemical constituents from Cordia myxa L. (Boraginaceae) and their antibacterial activity

Chemical investigation of Cordia myxa L. (Boraginaceae) resulted in the isolation of the following ten known compounds: 1-naphthaleneacetic-5-carboxy-1,2,3,4,4a,7,8,8a-octahydro-1,2,4a-trimethyl-[1S-(1 alpha,2 beta, 4a,8a alpha)]-acid (1), hexacosanoate-1-glyceryl (2), 3 beta-urs-12,20(30)-diene-27,28-dioic acid (3), 3 beta-D-glucopyranosylurs-12,20(30)-diene-27,28-dioic acid (4), stigmasterol (5), stigmasterol-3-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (6), oleanolic-acid (7), 3-O-acetyl-oleanolic acid (8), betulin (9) and spinasterol-3 beta-O-D-glucopyranoside (10). The isolated compounds were characterised by using spectroscopic methods, 1D and 2D NMR, mass spectroscopy (ESI-MS) and by comparison with the literature data. To the best of our knowledge, compounds 1, 3, 4, 8 and 10 were isolated for the first time from the Cordia genus. This result improves the chemotaxonomy knowledge of the Cordia genus. The antibacterial activities were performed by the Muller-Hinton agar diffusion method. The antibacterial activities were studied on Salmonella typhi, Staphylococcus aureus, Vibrio cholerae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli ATCC 25922. Compounds 8 and 9, at 20.0 mg/mL resulted to be effective antimicrobial against E. coli, V. cholerae and P. aeruginosa.