Secondary metabolites ofThymelaea hirsuta, a plant collected from the Sicilian Island of Lampedusa

An investigation of the secondary metabolites was carried out onThymelaea hirsutacollected from Lampedusa, the largest island of the Pelagie archipelago, located about 100 km from the North African coast and 200 km from the coast of Sicily. Ten compounds were isolated and found to belong to different classes of natural products as chromenes, cyclohexanones, furanyl, bis-furanyl and furanone polyphenols, and acrylates. Compounds7,8,9and10were slightly phytotoxic to lettuce reaching phytotoxicity of 1 (7,8and9) and 2 (10) using a 1-5 point scale. None of the compounds were active againstAgrostis stoloniferaL., a perennial grass of the Poaceae family. Tested against threeColletotrichumspecies (C. acutatum,C. fragarieandC. gloeosporioides) pathogenic for agricultural plants, only compound6had activity against all three species, but it was not as active as captan, the commercial fungicide used as a positive control.

Automated summary

An investigation of secondary metabolites in Thymelaea hirsuta from Lampedusa revealed ten compounds of different classes. Some compounds showed slight phytotoxicity to lettuce but were not active against Agrostis stolonifera. Only one compound had activity against three Colletotrichum species, but was less effective than the commercial fungicide captan.