ABSTRACT

Objective: The sesquiterpene, mikanolide, was found to possess antibacterial activity. As a result, a structure-activity relationship study was carried out on mikanolide and eleven of its derivatives.

ABSTRACT

Objective: Bacterial infection with organisms resistant to antibiotics have increased during the last few decades worldwide. Because of this increase, the authors decided to subject the essential oils from the stem, leaves and fruits of the four native Jamaica species of Bursera to microbial studies.

ABSTRACTS

Epingaione (4-Methyl-1-(5-methyl-2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-[2,3’]bifuranyl-5-yl)-pentan-2-one) was isolated as one of the major lipophilic secondary metabolites from the leaves and stems of Bontia daphnoides L. The compound gave 79.24% and 50.83% anti-proliferation/cytotoxic activity on the human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma and TE-671 sarcoma cells in vitro at 50 μg/mL, respectively. Epingaione was transformed into eleven derivatives under laboratory conditions using ethanol, some gave greater anti-proliferation/cytotoxic activity on the cancer cell lines tested.