Ethnopharmacological evaluation of radal (leaves of Lomatia hirsuta) and isolation of 2-methoxyjuglone

Henrik Toft Simonsen, Anne Adsersen, Louise Berthelsen, Søren B. Christensen, Alfonso Guzmán, Per Mølgaard

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Abstract

Background: Leaves of Lomatia hirsuta are used in traditional medicine in Chile under the common name of "radal". A tea of radal is traditionally used for treatment of cough, bronchial troubles, and asthma. In a preliminary screening, extracts of the leaves revealed antifungal activity, and the present phytochemical study was undertaken to explain this activity and support the traditional use. Methods: Along with the traditional tea, extracts of the leaves were screened for antifungal and toxic activities. The profile of secondary constituents was obtained using GC-MS. Results: 2-Methoxyjuglone was isolated from the leaves of Lomatia hirsuta and found to be active against the pathogenic fungus Candida albicans (MIC = 8 μg/mL). Cinnamic acid and vanillic acid were identified as major constituents in the tea by GC-MS. The tea was found not to be toxic against Artemia salina. Conclusion: The presence of phenolic acids with antimicrobial properties supports the traditional use of Radal, and encourages further studies.
Original languageEnglish
Article number29
JournalBMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Volume6
Issue number1
Number of pages4
ISSN1472-6882
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2006
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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