Studies on the chemical constituents of the leaves of ficus bengalensis and their antimicrobial activity

Abstract EN

Catechin and genistein flavonoids isolated from methanol extracts of the leaves of Ficus bengalensis which belongs to the family Moraceae are reported for the first time in Sudanese varieties.

The isolation process involved extraction with various solvents and separation using column chromatography techniques.

Their structural identifications were assigned on the basis of IR, UV, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, Distortionless Enhanceement by Polarization Transfer, Correlated Spectroscopy, MS spectral data and on comparison with published data.

However, bioactivity screening showed that both compounds possessed antibacterial activity on two species of bacteria Bacillus cereus NRRLUI-1447 (Grampositive) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa UI-60690 (Gram-negative), but had no effect on four species of fungi (Aspergillus ochraceus NRRL 398, Candida lipolytica ATCC 2075, Sacchromyces cereviseae NRRL 2034 and Sacchromyces lipolytica).

KEYWORDS: Ficus bengalensis, catechin, genistein.