Extractives from Artemisia afra with Anti-Bacterial and Anti-Fungal Properties.

Secondary metabolites were isolated using chromatographic techniques after being extracted sequentially from the roots of Artemisia afra using organic solvents such as ethanol, ethyl acetate, dichloromethane, and n-hexane. The isolated compounds were evaluated for anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, and cytotoxicity activities. Spectroscopic techniques, including Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), were used to elucidate the structures of the isolated compounds. The phytochemical investigation of A. afra led to the isolation of eight ( A - H ) compounds which were identified as 3 β -taraxerol ( A ), 3 β -taraxerol acetate ( B ), dodecyl- p -coumarate ( C ), ferulic acid ( D ), scopoletin ( E ), sitosterol-3- O - β - D -glucopyranoside ( F ), 3,5-di- O -feruloylquinic acid ( G ) and Isofraxidin-7- O - β - D -glucopyranoside ( H ) based on spectroscopic data. Compounds A , B , C , F , G , and H are known but were isolated for the first time from the roots of A. afra . The isolated compounds and extracts from A. afra exhibited good anti-fungal and anti-bacterial activity with dichloromethane and ethyl acetate crude extracts (0.078 mg/mL) and compound E (62.5 µg/mL) showed good activities against Escherichia coli . Compounds C and F also showed good activity against Enterococcus faecalis with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of 62.5 and 31.25 µg/mL, respectively. Extracts and compounds ( A - H ) exhibited anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties and showed no toxicity when tested on Vero monkey kidney (Vero) cells.