Natural Product Research, Vol. 20, No.

1, January 2006, 2126

Antibacterial activity of eight Brazilian Annonaceae plants

JACQUELINE A. TAKAHASHI*, CASSIA R. PEREIRA, LUCIA P. S. PIMENTA,
MARIA AMELIA D. BOAVENTURA and LUIZ G. F. E SILVA
Departamento de Qu mica ICEx Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais,
Av. Antonio Carlos, 6627, CEP 31270-901, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
(Received 3 August 2003; in final form 21 May 2004)
Sixteen extracts, obtained from eight Brazilian plants of Annonaceae family, were screened for
their antibacterial activity: Xylopia frutescens, X. aromatica, X. amazonica, X. benthamii,
Annona ambotay, A. crassiflora, A. muricata and A. cherimolia. Amongst the investigated
extracts, six showed antibacterial activity against at least one of the tested organisms at the concentration of 100 mg/mL. The most active extracts were those prepared from X. frutescens, X.
amazonica, and A. ambotay. A phytochemical screening showed the presence of
anonaceus acetogenins in some active extracts. Eleven diterpenoids were also tested for comparison purposes. Six were natural products, previously isolated from Xylopia sp. (kaurenoic, frutoic, xylopic, 15-hydroxy-kaurenoic and trachylobanic acids plus kaurenol) and five were
derivatives of such compounds, obtained by esterification or reduction reactions.
Trachylobanic acid showed antibacterial activity against B. subtilis and S. aureus.
Keywords: Annonaceae; Annona; Xylopia; Diterpenoids; Antibacterial activity

1. Introduction
In Brazil, domiciliary growth of medicinal plants is very common, as about 80% of the
population use such plants as their major source of therapeutic resources [1]. However,
from Brazilian biodiversity, estimated on 4055 thousands of plant species, less than
1% has been studied in terms of their chemical constitution [2]. Scientific studies
concerning the biological activity of plant extracts and metabolites are still scarce.
One of the most important uses of medicinal plants by people living in the tropical
countries is as antimicrobial agents. In such developing countries, infectious diseases
account for approximately one-half of all deaths [3]. However, even in developed countries such as the United States, the mortality rates caused by infectious diseases have
been on an increase [4], probably due to novel cases of respiratory tract infections,
development of bacterial resistance, and AIDS. Nowadays, a significant proportion
of prescription drugs used in western medicine is of plant origin. Bioprospection of

*Corresponding author. Tel: 55 31-34995754; Fax: 55 31-34995700. Email: jacfab@dedalus.lcc.ufmg.br

Natural Product Research
ISSN 1478-6419 print: ISSN 1029-2349 online 2006 Taylor & Francis
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
DOI: 14786410412331280087

22

J. A. Takahashi et al.
Table 1.

Species

Ethnobotanical data for studied plants according to Correa (13)

Parts tested Popular name(s)

A. ambotay Aubl.
A. crassiflora Mart.

wood
leaves and
seeds
A. muricata L
leaves
A. cherimolia Mill
leaves
Xylopia frutescens Aubl. fruits

X. aromatica
wood
Lam (Mart.)
X. amazonica R.E. Fries wood
X. benthamii R.E. Fries wood

not found
araticum cortica,
cabeca de negro (nigros head)
araticum ponhe, graviola
cherimolia, atemoia, anoneira
coaguerecou,
pimenta-do-mato (fields pepper),
imbira de cacador (hunters liane)
pimenta dos macacos
(monkeys pepper)
not found
envira amarela
(yellow liane)

Use(s) in Brazil
Not found
Edible fruits
Edible fruits, to treat aphtas
To treat tumors
Bladder stimulant,
Against rheumatism
Exciting, carminative,
As substitute of Piper nigrum
Not found
As substitute of gloves
(Eugenia caryophyllata)

tropical plants for antimicrobial activity is of growing interest as this evaluation can
bring about novel active natural products to be used in chemotherapy, as well as in
industry as food deterioration retardant agents.
Studies carried on by Adegoke and Sagua [5] showed that Xylopia aethiopica
(Annonaceae), a plant native of Africa, was able to reduce microbial spoilage in
tomato ketchup and minced meat. Later, the antibacterial activity of X. aethiopica was
related to the presence of xylopic acid in this plant [3]. Some species of Xylopia are also
found common in Brazil, where they are used for medicinal purposes or as a condiment
in culinary. In this work, we have tested four plants of Xylopia genus as well as four plants
of Annona genus, all belonging to the Annonaceae family, aiming at the discovery of
novel sources of antimicrobial agents. The Annona species were included in this study
as they furnish edible fruits and have several popular uses in Brazil (Table I).
Antibacterial activity of six diterpenoids isolated from Xylopia sp. (1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9) and
five derivatives (2, 6, 8, 10, 11) of such natural products were also tested.
2. Results and discussion
Sixteen different extracts (hexane, ethanol, methanol, benzene, and chlorofom) of six
plants from Xylopia and Annona genus, used in the Brazilian culinary and traditional
folk medicine (13), were screened for their antibacterial activity against five bacteria.
Some data about the screened plants and their uses are reported on Table I. Eleven
diterpenoids were also tested, as a compound of this class, xylopic acid, isolated
from Xylopia sp., was previously reported to have antibacterial activity [3]. The results
(only for active extracts/compounds) are presented in Table II.
Amongst the 16 plant extracts investigated, six (TM1, TM6, TM7, TM10, TM11
and TM15) showed antibacterial activity against at least one of the tested organisms,
at the concentration of 100 mg/mL, all of them being active against B. subtilis. Three
extracts (TM6, TM11 and TM15) also showed activity against S. aureus; but none
of the extracts or compounds were active against E. coli, M. luteus and P. aeruginosa.
The most promising effect was obtained from the ethanol extract of A. cherimolia
leaves (TM15) that showed the biggest inhibition zone towards B. subtilis and
S. aureus. From the eleven pure compounds tested, besides xylopic acid (5) whose
antimicrobial activity has already been described, only one (19-trachylobanic acid, 9)

23

Antibacterial activity of eight Brazilian Annonaceae plants

Table 2. Diameter (mm) of inhibition zone (diameter of inhibition zone minus
diameter of the disc) after 24 (48) h observed for the tested extracts and pure
compounds (100 mg/disc)
Extract/
compound

Bacteria
B. subtilis

TM1
TM6
TM7
TM10
TM11
TM15
5
9
Control*

9
9
7
10
10
14
8
8
30

S. aureus

(7)
(9)
(6)
(8)
(10)
(14)
(8)
(8)
(30)

NS (NS)
7 (7)
NS (NS)
NS (NS)
9 (9)
11 (11)
NS (NS)
7 (7)
R (R)

R: resistant; NS: not sensitive.

*chloramfenicol (30 mg/disc).

showed activity at the tested concentration. Interestingly, xylopic acid was isolated
from TM1, one of the active extracts [9]. Compounds 5 and 9 were spotted on a
TLC plate containing all active extracts to investigate their presence in the remaining
extracts. As expected, a positive spot was observed for 5 in extract TM1 profile, but
the remaining extracts did not show the presence of compounds 5 and 9. Based upon
some authors proposal about a possible correlation between antibacterial activity and
the presence of alkaloids in the corresponding plants, a short phytochemical screening
was carried out with the extracts. However, no pattern between the activity and the
presence of alkaloids was observed, as, according to the phytochemical screening
results, extracts TM5, TM7, TM8, TM9, TM10, TM11 and TM12 gave positive
tests for alkaloids but, among them, only three were active. Phytochemical screening
also revealed presence of flavonoids in all active extracts, except for TM1. Presence of
sterols, detected by the development of a blue/greenish colour after addition of
LiebermannBurchard reagent, was only observed for extract TM15, while the presence of pentacyclic triterpenes (pink colour) was detected only in TM6. Extracts
TM10 and TM11 were active for annonaceus acetogenins (positive both for Kedde
and Dragendorf reactives). These compounds may be responsible for positive results
of their corresponding extracts in the biological screening. Extract TM1 gave negative
results for all tested group of compounds and its activity is probably connected to its
high contents of xylopic acid.

R2
R1

(1) R1= CO2H

R2 = H

(2) R1= CO2CH3

R2 = H

(4) R1= CH2OH

R2 = H

(5) R1= CO2H

R2 = OAc

(10) R = CO2CH3

(6) R1= CO2CH3

R2 = OAc

(11) R = CH2OH

(7) R1= CO2H

R2 = OH

(8) R1= CO2CH3

R2 = OH

CO2H

OH

(9) R = CO2H

(3)

24

J. A. Takahashi et al.

3. Experimental
3.1. Plant Material
Plants used for this study were collected at Minas Gerais and Amazonia States, Brazil,
in 1995 (June to August), except fruits of X. frutescens that were collected in April, 1989
in Para State. Authentic specimens were deposited at the Instituto de Ciencias
Biologicas Herbarium (UFMG, MG, Brazil) and INPA Herbarium (AM, Brazil).

3.2. Extract Preparation

The plant material was allowed to air dry and afterwards pulverized in a grinder.
Plants (and parts used) were: Xylopia frutescens Aubl. (fruits), X. aromatica Lam
(Mart.) (wood), X. amazonica R.E. Fries (wood), X. benthamii R.E. Fries (wood),
Annona ambotay Aubl. (wood), A. crassiflora Mart. (leaves and seeds), A. muricata L
(leaves) and A. cherimolia Mill (leaves). After pulverization, the material was extracted
with organic solvents at room temperature for 5 days and then, the solvents were taken
out under reduced pressure furnishing: (i) hexane extracts of X. frutescens fruits (24.6%
dry wt.; TM1), X. aromatica wood (14.7% dry wt.; TM2), A. crassiflora leaves (18.7%
dry wt.; TM3), A. muricata leaves (10.2% dry wt.; TM4) and A. cherimolia leaves
(10.0% dry wt.; TM5); (ii) ethanolic extracts of X. frutescens fruits (18.2% dry wt.;
TM6), X. amazonica wood (14.3% dry wt.; TM7), X. benthamii wood (12.0% dry
wt.; TM8), A. crassiflora leaves (41.0% dry wt.; TM12) and seeds (16.7% dry wt.;
TM13), A. muricata leaves (18.1% dry wt.; TM14), A. cherimolia leaves (15.0% dry
wt.; TM15); (iii) methanolic extract of X. aromatica wood (18.8% dry wt.; TM9);
(iv) benzene extract of A. ambotay wood (20.0% dry wt.; TM11) and (v) chloroform
extract of X. amazonica wood (12.6% dry wt.; TM10). A choroformic fraction obtained
from TM12 by partition (4.5% dry wt.; TM16) was also tested.

3.3. Phytochemical Screening Methods

The extracts were tested for flavonoids using a 1.0% aluminium chloride solution
in methanol and concentrated HCl [6] and for alkaloids using the reactive of
Dragendorf [7]. The presence of annonaceus acetogenins was achieved by comparison
between results obtained from different plates after spraying Dragendorff and Kedde
reactives. Samples containing positive spots in both the tests were considered active
for acetogenins. Tests for sterols and triterpenes were carried out, according to Rizk
[8] using LiebermannBurchard reaction.

3.4. Natural Products and Derivatives

Six diterpenoids of natural origin were tested: kaurenoic acid (1), frutoic acid (3), kaurenol (4), xylopic acid (5), 15-hydroxy-kaurenoic acid (7), previously isolated from
X. frutescens fruits [9], and trachylobanic acid (9), isolated from X. sericea seeds [10].
Five methyl esters, obtained respectively from compounds 1, 5, 7 and 9 by esterification
with diazomethane, were also tested: kaurenoic acid methyl ester (2), xylopic acid
methyl ester (6), 15-hydroxy-kaurenoic acid methyl ester (8) and 19-trachylobanic

Antibacterial activity of eight Brazilian Annonaceae plants

25

acid methyl ester (10); 19-trachylobanol (11) was obtained after reduction of 10 with
LiAlH4 in THF.
3.5. Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC)
Compounds 5 and 9 and all extracts were dissolved in a mixture of methanol/chloroform (1 : 1) and spotted on silica gel plates (0.25 mm). Plates were eluted in two different
eluent systems (hexane/ethyl acetate 30% and ethyl acetate 100%). The developed TLC
plates were sprayed with anisaldehyde/HCl followed by heating.
3.6. Microorganisms
The following bacterial strains were used: Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633, Escherichia coli
ATCC 25922, Micrococcus luteus ATCC 9341, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27835
and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923. They were cultured on MillerHinton agar
at 37
C for 48 h.
3.7. Antibacterial Assay
Antibacterial activity was assayed by the agar diffusion method [11]. The solvent used
for extract solubilization was dimethylformamide (DMF). Sterile 6 mm diameter filter
paper discs were impregnated with 1 mL of each extract (100 mg/mL). The inhibition
zones surrounding the discs were measured after 24 and 48 h of bacterial growth.
Chloramphenicol (30 mg/disc) was used as positive control and discs containing only
DMF were used as negative control. The inhibition zone diameters around each disc
(diameter of inhibition zone minus diameter of the disc) measured and recorded, at
the end of incubation time. The experiment was carried out in triplicate and an average
zone was calculated from both measurements. Only inhibition zones equal or bigger
than 7 mm (observed after 24 h) were considered to be of interest.

Acknowledgements
The authors thank FAPEMIG for financial support and CNPq and PRPq for a scholarship to C.R.P. We also thank Dr. Andreia M. Amaral (ICB/UFMG) for providing
us the bacteria strains.

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