Novel bioactive compound from the bark of Putranjiva roxburghii Wall.

Putranjivah (Putranjiva roxburghii Wall, family - Putranjivaceae) is an Indian native medicinal plant used to treat many diseases such as treatment of mouth and stomach ulcers, hot swellings, smallpox, burning sensation and ophthalmopathy. The study of chemical constituents in the bark of P. roxburghii resulted in a new triterpene (6) along with five known triterpenoids (1-5). The chemical characterisation was based on 1H, 13C, 2D-NMR experimentation, and ESI-MS data. The anti-plasmodial activity was investigated by measuring parasite-specific lactate dehydrogenase (pLDH) based in vitro assay. The IC50 value results showed that friedlein (2.40 ± 0.70) and roxburghonol (4.10 ± 1.7 μg/ml) possess better anti-plasmodial activity than other isolated triterpenes (2-5) but not as potent as chloroquine (0.023 ± 0.002 μg/ml) against chloroquine-sensitive Plasmodium falciparum (3D7) strain.