Chemical Constituents and Antibacterial Activity of Cissus aralioides

Cissus aralioides is a medicinal plant used in sub-Saharan Africa for the treatment of infectious diseases; however, the chemical constituents of the plant have not been investigated. Thus, in this study, an attempt was made at identifying predominant phytochemical constituents of the plant through chromatographic purification and silylation of the plant extract, and subsequent characterization using spectroscopic and GC-MS techniques. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MICs) for the antibacterial activities of the plant extract, chromatographic fractions, and isolated compounds were also examined. Chromatographic purification of the ethyl acetate fraction from the whole plant afforded three compounds: beta-sitosterol (1), stigmasterol (2), and friedelin (3). The phytosterols (1 and 2) were obtained together as a mixture. The GC-MS analysis of silylated extract indicated alcohols, fatty acids, and sugars as predominant classes, with a composition of 24.62, 36.90 and 26.52%, respectively. Results of MICs indicated that friedelin and other chromatographic fractions had values (0.0626-1.0 mg/mL) comparable with the standard antibiotics used. Characterization of natural products from C. aralioides is being reported for the first time in this study.