New antifungal flavonoid glycoside from Vitex negundo

Flavonoids are ubiquitous in photosynthesizing cells and are common part of human diet. For centuries, preparations containing these compounds as the principal physiologically active constituents have been used to treat human diseases. Increasingly, this class of natural products is becoming the subject of anti-infective research. Our bioactivity guided fractionation of ethanolic extract of leaves of Vitex negundo resulted in the isolation of new flavone glycoside (4) along with five known compounds 1-3, 5 and 6. All the isolated compounds were evaluated for their antimicrobial activities. The new flavone glycoside 4 and compound 5 were found to have significant antifungal activity against Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Cryptococcus neoformans at MIC 6.25 mu g/ml. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.