Structure and in vitro antiparasitic activity of constituents of Citropsis articulata root bark.

From the results of an ethnomedicinal investigation of plants from Uganda with antimalarial activity, Citropsis articulata was selected because of the antiplasmodial effect of an ethyl acetate extract of its root bark. Thus, from the cyclohexane, ethyl acetate, and methanol extracts, two new heterocyclic compounds, omubioside (1) and katimborine (2), were isolated in addition to five known coumarins (rutarin (3), seselin (4), suberosin (5), demethylsuberosin (6), and haploperoside (7)), two known alkaloids (5-hydroxynoracronycine (8) and 1,5-dihydroxy-2,3-dimethoxy-10-methyl-9-acridone (9)), trigonelline (10), and the limonoid 7α-obacunyl acetate (11). The best growth inhibitors of Plasmodium falciparum were alkaloids 8 and 9, with IC50 values of 0.9 and 3.0 μg/mL.