The growing problems of tuberculosis have led to the search for new anti-Mtb agents from higher plants. The stem bark of
Spondias mombin
was evaluated for its
in vitro activity against
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
(H37Rv strain). Bioassay-guided fractionation of the methanol extract was carried out by Vacuum Liquid Chromatography (VLC) on Silica gel (230-400 mesh) and purification was done using HPLC and TLC.
In vitro antimycobacterial susceptibility was performed by a fluorometric microplate alamar blue assay (MABA) and percentage mycobacterial inhibition was calculated. The structures of the isolated compounds were established by spectroscopic analysis. The active VLC fraction exhibited 91% inhibition against
M. tuberculosis H37Rv at a concentration of 40 μg/mL. The HPLC fraction SMi-15 containing compounds 1 and 2 showed 92.8% inhibition against
M. tuberculosis. Two new antimycobacterial phytosterols were isolated from the stem bark of
S. mombin and the structureswere identified as mombintane I (1) and mombintane II (2). The stem bark extractives of
S. mombin contain antitubercular principles of the class phytosterol and support an important potential of triterpenoids.
