Anti-babesial compounds from Berberis vulgaris

Abstract

Extracts of nine North African medicinal plants have been evaluated for their anti-babesial properties in vitro. The extracts of Berberis vulgaris and Rosa damascena showed more than 90% inhibition of the parasite growth at a test concentration of 100 μg/mL. In addition to berberine alkaloids, we isolated nine active ingredients from B. vulgaris: E-coniferyl alcohol (-)-simulanol, p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, 3-hydroxy-4,5-dimethoxybenzoic acid, trans-ferulic acid, syringic acid, vanillic acid, cis-ferulic acid, and syringaresinol-β-D- glucoside. These compounds are all known, but are newly reported for B. vulgaris. Among them, trans-ferulic acid showed the lowest IC50 value (7.33 μg/mL), not much above that of the standard drug diminazene aceturate (0.60 μg/mL).