Abstract
The development of new antiplasmodial drugs is of primary importance due to the growing problem of multi-drug resistance of malaria parasites. Spilanthes acmella, a plant traditionally used for the treatment of toothache, was targeted as a lead for its potential antiplasmodial activity. A systematic approach for investigating a suitable centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) solvent system for N-alkylamides separation was reported. The partition behavior of three N-alkylamides has been studied using several biphasic solvent mixtures in search of an adequate CPC solvent system for this class of compounds. Major N-alkylamides in S. acmella were isolated from a methanolic crude extract of flowers by CPC with the solvent system heptanes-ethyl acetate-methanol-water (3:2:3:2, v/v/v/v). Four N-alkylamides were purified and the structures were illustrated by electrospray ionization-ion trap-time of flight-mass spectrometry (ESI-IT-TOF-MS), 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (13C NMR). The CPC fractions, which contained natural mixtures of phytochemicals, demonstrated significantly higher antiplasmodial activity compared to corresponding purified N-alkylamides, thus suggesting that interactions between these N-alkylamides may potentiate antiplasmodial bioactivity.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1886-1892 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Journal of Chromatography B: Analytical Technologies in the Biomedical and Life Sciences |
Volume | 879 |
Issue number | 21 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 1 2011 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Antiplasmodial activity
- Centrifugal partition chromatography
- N-alkylamides
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Analytical Chemistry
- Biochemistry
- Clinical Biochemistry
- Cell Biology