Anti-infective activities of secondary metabolites from Vitex pinnata

The phytochemical investigation of Vitex pinnata led to the isolation of a mixture of steroids ß-sitosterol and stigmasterol (1a and 1b) and three known flavonoid identified as 5-hydroxy-3, 7, 4'-trimethoxyflavone (2), 5-hydroxy-7,4'-dimethoxy-flavone (3) and 5-hydroxy-3,3',4',7-tetramethoxyflavone (4). The structures of all isolated compounds were carried out by NMR and mass spectrometry. The isolated compounds were evaluated for their anti-infective activities against Trypanosoma brucei brucei and Mycobacterium marinum. Compound 1-4 showed moderate antitrypanosomal activity with MIC values of 6.25μg/ml, 19.0, 21.0 and 17.0μM, respectively while no activity observed on anti-mycobacterial. This study is the first to report the presence of three flavones and their antitrypanosomal activity from V. pinnata.