Journal of Medicinal Plant Research Volume 9 Number 47, 17 December, 2015 ISSN 1996-0875 ABOUT JMPR The Journal of Medicinal Plant Research is published weekly (one volume per year) by Academic Journals. The Journal of Medicinal Plants Research (JMPR) is an open access journal that provides rapid publication (weekly) of articles in all areas of Medicinal Plants research, Ethnopharmacology, Fitoterapia, Phytomedicine etc. The Journal welcomes the submission of manuscripts that meet the general criteria of significance and scientific excellence. Papers will be published shortly after acceptance. All articles published in JMPR are peerreviewed. Electronic submission of manuscripts is strongly encouraged, provided that the text, tables, and figures are included in a single Microsoft Word file (preferably in Arial font). 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Dr. Hassan Sher Dr. Cheng Tan Department of Botany and Microbiology, Department of Dermatology, first Affiliated Hospital College of Science, of Nanjing Univeristy of King Saud University, Riyadh Traditional Chinese Medicine. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 155 Hanzhong Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China. 210029 Dr. Jin Tao Professor and Dong-Wu Scholar, Dr. Naseem Ahmad Department of Neurobiology, Young Scientist (DST, FAST TRACK Scheme) Medical College of Soochow University, Plant Biotechnology Laboratory 199 Ren-Ai Road, Dushu Lake Campus, Department of Botany Suzhou Industrial Park, Aligarh Muslim University Suzhou 215123, Aligarh- 202 002,(UP) P.R.China. India. Dr. Pongsak Rattanachaikunsopon Dr. Isiaka A. Ogunwande Department of Biological Science, Dept. Of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos, Ubon Ratchathani University, Nigeria. Ubon Ratchathani 34190, Thailand. 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Journal of Medicinal Plants Research Table of Contents: Volume 9 Number 47 17 December, 2015 ARTICLE Phytochemical and antimicrobial studies of Pachypodium lamerei 1123 Dina Faek El-Kashef, Ashraf Nageeb El-Sayed Hamed, Hany Ezzat Khalil, Rehab Mahmoud Abd-Elbaky and Mohamed Salah Kamel Vol. 9(47), pp. 1123-1130, 17 December, 2015 DOI: 10.5897/JMPR2015.5984 Article Number: 5A80A0656773 ISSN 1996-0875 Journal of Medicinal Plants Research Copyright © 2015 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article http://www.academicjournals.org/JMPR Full Length Research Paper Phytochemical and antimicrobial studies of Pachypodium lamerei Dina Faek El-Kashef1, Ashraf Nageeb El-Sayed Hamed1*, Hany Ezzat Khalil1, Rehab Mahmoud Abd-Elbaky2 and Mohamed Salah Kamel1 1Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Minia University, 61519 Minia, Egypt. 2Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Minia University, 61519 Minia, Egypt Received 26 October, 2015; Accepted 10 December, 2015 Five compounds were reported for the first time in the tribe Malouetieae from the leaves and stems of Pachypodium lamerei viz., fatty acid methyl ester (stearic acid methyl ester 1), a mixture of two steroidal aglycones (β-sitosterol 2 and stigmasterol 3), a pentacyclic triterpene (ursolic acid 4) and a steroidal glucoside (β-sitosterol-3-O-β-D-glucopyranoside 5). The structure elucidation was based on comparison of their physical, chemical, chromatographic properties, spectral data with literature as well as direct comparison with authentic compounds. The petroleum ether fraction and the total ethanolic extract of (leaves and stems) exhibited minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) against Pseudomonas aeruginosa (1.06 and 2.52 μg/ml), respectively. These results are comparable to that obtained by amikacin (MIC, 2.38 μg/ml). Moreover, the petroleum ether fraction displayed the lowest MIC (16.45 μg/ml) against Candida albicans. This result is greatly promising since the standard drug (ketoconazole) exhibited MIC (185.87 μg/ml). This is the first time to estimate both antibacterial and antifungal activities of any of Pachypodium species. Key words: Pachypodium lamerei, Apocynaceae, phytochemical, antimicrobial, antibacterial, antifungal. INTRODUCTION Family Apocynaceae is rich in many secondary different members of this family showed antimicrobial metabolites with important biological and economic activities against different bacterial strains, viz., Funtumia values, viz., triterpenes, cardenolides, sterols, saponins, elastic (leaves and barks) exhibited antibacterial effects and alkaloids (Seigler, 1998; Pelletier, 1996; Trease and against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Evans, 1991; Gunatilaka, 1986). Reviewing the available Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis (Agyare et al., literature, it was evident that alkaloids of family 2013). Furthermore, Cynanchum acutum (leaves and Apocynaceae have been extensively reported (Raffauf fruits) displayed certain bactericidal influences against S. and Flagler, 1960). Moreover, triterpenes and sterols are aureus, B. subtilis, P. aeruginosa, Proteus vulgaris and E. found to be widely distributed in family Apocynaceae and coli (Dehghani et al., 2012). In addition to, S. aureus, B. summarized in a review (El-Kashef et al., 2015a). The subtilis, E. coli and P. aeruginosa were inhibited by root *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected]. Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License 1124 J. Med. Plants Res. extracts of Rhazya stricta (Marwat et al., 2012). This glass column (Φ=4.5, L=80 cm) packed with silica gel for column family also displayed antifungal activities such as the (600 g), slurried in petroleum ether. The column was eluted initially aqueous leaf extracts of Catharanthus roseus and with petroleum ether, then with petroleum ether-EtOAc in the order of increasing polarities. The effluents were collected in fractions (2 Tabernaemontana divaricate, which showed inhibitory L each). Each fraction was concentrated under reduced pressure effects against Candida albicans (Wankhede et al., and monitored by thin layer chromatography (TLC) plates. Similar 2013). Moreover, F. elastic (leaves and barks) exhibited a fractions were combined together then concentrated. Five fractions fungicidal activity against C. albicans, Aspergillus flavus were obtained (I-V). Fraction II (4 g, eluted by petroleum ether- and Aspergillus niger (Agyare et al., 2013). Additionally, EtOAc, 9:1) was further purified by silica gel column chromatography (CC) (Φ=2, L=80 cm, 160 g silica), using Aspergillus terreus, A. flavus and C. albicans were petroleum ether-EtOAc gradient elution as a mobile phase to yield inhibited by CHCl3 and MeOH root extracts of R. stricta compound 1 [yellow oil, 100 mg, Rf=0.64, system; petroleum ether- (Marwat et al., 2012). One of these plants belongs to EtOAc (98:2)]. Moreover, fraction III [7.1 g, eluted by petroleum family Apocynaceae is Pachypodium lamerei Drake. The ether-EtOAc, (85:15)] was further subjected to silica gel CC (Φ=3, unsaponifiable and saponifiable matters of P. lamerei L=80 cm, 300 g silica) using petroleum ether-EtOAc gradient elution leaves and stems were investigated by gas to give a mixture of two compounds 2 and 3 [white needle crystals, 2.3 g, R =0.43, system; petroleum ether-EtOAc (75:25)]. chromatography mass spectrometry (El-Kashef et al., f On the other side, the CHCl3 fraction (78.7 g) was fractionated by 2014). Reviewing the available literature about this plant, VLC. The column (Φ=5, L=80 cm) was packed with (800 g) silica nothing could be traced about the chemical and gel for TLC and eluted initially with petroleum ether and the EtOAc antimicrobial studies. This provoked us to carry out concentrations were increased gradually to 100% EtOAc. The extensive