Naturally Occurring Antifungal Aromatic Esters and Amides

During the search of antifungal natural products from terrestrial plants, a new long chained aromatic ester named grandiflorate (1) along with spatazoate (2) from Portulaca grandiflora and N-[2-methoxy-2-(4-methoxyphenyl) ethyl]-trans-cinnamide (3) and aegeline (4) from Solanum erianthum of Nigeria were isolated and tested against six fungal species. The known constituents 2-4 have not been reported so far from mentioned investigated plants. Structures of the isolated compounds were elucidated with the aid of spectroscopic techniques including two dimensional NMR experiments. Among the compounds 1-4, the esters (1-2) found more potent than amides (3-4) against Candida albicans and Aspergillus flavus. The new compound grandiflorate (1) gave response against all tested fungal species while aegeline (4) was found to give lowest inhibition during this study.