Pentacyclic Triterpenoids, Phytosteroids and Fatty Acid Isolated from the Stem-bark of Cola lateritia K. Schum. (Sterculiaceae) of Cameroon origin; Evaluation of Their Antibacterial Activity

The phytochemical investigation on the chemical constituents of dichloromethanemethanol (1:1) stem-bark extract of Cola lateritia K. Schum. (Sterculiaceae) led to the isolation and characterization of five pentacyclic triterpenoids, one fatty acid and two phytosteroids. The compounds were identified as heptadecanoic acid (1), maslinic acid (2), betulinic acid (3), lupenone (4), lupeol (5), friedelin (6), b-stigmasterol (7) and ss-sitosterol-3-O-ss-D-glucoside (8). Their structures were determined by NMR analysis (1H, 13C, DEPT-135, COSY, HMBC and HSQC), high resolution mass spectrometry (HR-ESI-MS) and comparisons with published data in the literature. This work, to the best of our knowledge, is the first isolation and identification of these compounds in pure forms from Cola lateritia. Also, compounds 1-3 are reported for the first time from Cola genus. In vitro antibacterial activity of the isolated compounds (1-8) and the crude extract were evaluated against Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Enterococcus faecalis, Mycobacterium smegmatis, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterobacter cloacae, Klebsiella oxytoca, Proteus vulgaris, Klebsiella pneumonia, Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis and Klebsiella aerogenes with streptomycin, nalidixic acid and ampicillin as standard antibacterial drugs. Compound 2 was active against E. faecalis (MIC = 18.5 mg/mL), and it was 6.9 and 28 times lower and active than that of streptomycin (MIC 128 mg/mL) and nalidixic acid (MIC > 512 mg/mL) respectively. All the isolated compounds and crude extract showed significant activities against the tested bacterial strains. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

A phytochemical investigation on the stem-bark extract of Cola lateritia led to the isolation and identification of five pentacyclic triterpenoids, one fatty acid, and two phytosteroids. Compound 2 exhibited significant antibacterial activity against Enterococcus faecalis.