Bio-guided study of secondary metabolites with antimicrobial activity and isolation of D-pinitol from Leucaena esculentaand L. leucocephalaseeds

Abstract

Phytochemical bio-guided studies are used to find compounds with biological activity. Flavonoids from seeds of Leucaenaspecies have antimicrobial activity in strains of medical interest, therefore, fresh seeds were collected from the town of Tlayacapan, Morelos, Mexico. The methanolic extracts were obtained by the maceration technique, targeted fractionation was performed using adsorption and molecular exclusion chromatographic techniques; to observe the antimicrobial activity, agardiffusion techniques were used; spectrometric and spectroscopic techniques were used for the characterization of D-pinitol, resulting from the fractionation of L. leucocephala. Antimicrobial activity was found on strains of Escherichia coliCUSI and Staphylococcus aureusATCC 29213 of the most polar fractions, identifying the responsible compounds by HPLC: caffeic acid, gallic acid, p-coumaric acid, quercetin, catechin and apigenin, these compounds can inhibit the activation enzymatic, synthesis of nucleicacids and proteins, chelating with different ions, etc.