ISOARNOTTININ 4'-GLUCOSIDE, A GLYCOSYLATED COUMARIN FROM Prangos uloptera, WITH BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITY

*Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Mohaghegh-Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran;
**Depatrment of Animal Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

Received April 6, 2010; in final form July 07, 2010

Coumarins are a well-known group of natural products distributed in the plant kingdom especially in the family Apiaceae with various biological activities. Isoarnottinin 4'-glucoside is a simple glycosylated coumarin found previously in a few genera of Apiaceae, and its biological activities have not been previously described in details. In the present paper, the compound was isolated from Prangos uloptera (Apiaceae) leaves using HPLC techniques. Antimicrobial, phytotoxic and cytotoxic activities of the compound were evaluated by disk diffusion, lettuce assay and MTT method. Our results indicated that the compound has high antibacterial effect against Erwinia carotovora, a common plant pathogen with MIC value of 100 µg/mL. The compound also exhibited significant phytotoxic activity against lettuce and modest cytotoxic activity against HeLa cell line with IC₅₀of 0.84 mg/mL. It could be concluded that isoarnottinin 4'-glucoside may play phytoalexin or allelopathic role for plant and may be a candidate for an antibacterial agent or a bioherbicide.

Key words: Prangos uloptera, Isoarnottinin, Phytoalexin, allelopathy, Erwinia carotovora.