Antimalarial Evaluation of the Chemical Constituents Isolated from Dendrocalamus asper

Abstract

Bamboo shoots of Dendrocalamus asper is essential for human health because of the high content of dietary fiber, low sugar, negligible amount of fat, and rich vitamin and mineral content. The bamboo shoots' chemical constituents were evaluated against the P. falciparum strain 3D7 as a potential antimalarial drug. One new metabolite, (11Z,13E,17E,19Z)-dimethyl-15,16-dibutoxytriconta-11,13,17,19-tetraenedioate (1) along with four known compounds; β-sitosterol (2), methyl-4-hydroxybenzoate (3), 1-methoxy-4-(methoxymethyl)benzene (4) and 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde (5) were isolated from the crude extract of Dendrocalamus asper using chromatographic methods: MPLC, UPLC/MS, analytical and preparative HPLC. Among these, compounds 1, 3, and 4 showed promising antimalarial activity with IC50 between 0.8-2.2 μg/mL. The molecular docking between the most potent compound 3 and dihydrofolate reductase-thymidylate synthase (DHFR-TS) was done to understand and explore the ligand-receptor interactions and hypothesize the compound's refinements.