Lipids constituents from Gardenia aqualla Stapf & Hutch

Gardenia aqualla a plant of the Rubiaceae family is being used extensively in Africa, particularly in Cameroon as an herbal medicine. Therefore it is necessary to have knowledge of the constituents of the plant of our native species. Thus, the aim of the present study was to investigate chemical constituents of this herbal medicine. Nine compounds, including one alkane, n-Nonacosane (1), two aliphatic alcohols n-heptatriacontanol (2) and n-Docosanol(3),one fatty ester, Heptadecyl heptacosanoate (4), two sugars, D-mannitol (5) and D-mannitol acetate (6), and a mixture of three phytosterols, beta-sitosterol (7), stigmasterol (8) and fucosterol (9), have been isolated and purified from the stem barks of Gardenia aqualla Stapf & Hutch. Their structures were elucidated using spectroscopic analyses, including 1D and 2D NMR and ESI-MS. The fatty acid ester, heptadecyl heptacosanoate (4) is reported here for the first time. All the isolated compounds were tested for their antimicrobial activities against four Gram negative bacteria (Salmonella Typhimurium ATCC6539, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC9721, Escherichia coli, and S. Typhi) and four yeasts (Candida albicans ATCC9002, Candida parapsilosis ATCC77019, Candida krusei and C. albicans).