Acta Pharm. 69 (2019) 673-681
Original research paper
Phenolic compounds of Iris adriatica and their
antimycobacterial effects
SANDRA OCHENSBERGER, FABIAN ALPERTH, BOŽENA MITIĆ, OLAF KUNERT, STEFANIE
MAYER, MARIA FERREIRA MOURÃO, IVANA TUREK, SIMON VLAD LUCA, KRYSTYNA
SKALICKA-WOŹNIAK, ŽELJAN MALEŠ, DARIO HRUŠEVAR, IVAN DUKA and FRANZ BUCAR
franz.bucar@uni-graz.at
1 University of Graz,
Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Department of Pharmacognosy, 8010 Graz,
Austria
2 University of Zagreb, Faculty
of Science, Department of Biology (Botany), HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia
3 University of Graz,
Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry,
8010 Graz, Austria
4 University of Lisbon,
Faculty of Pharmacy, 1649-003 Lisboa, Portugal
5 Department of Pharmacognosy,
Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy Iasi, 700115 Iasi, Romania
6 Department of Pharmacognosy
with Medicinal Plant Unit, Medical University of Lublin, 20-093 Lublin, Poland
7 University of Zagreb, Faculty
of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Department of Pharmaceutical Botany, HR-10000
Zagreb, Croatia
Accepted March 17, 2019
Published online April 24, 2019
Little is known
about the pharmacological activities of Iris
adriatica (Iridaceae),
a plant endemic to Dalmatia (Croatia). We therefore performed a bioassay-guided
fractionation including high-performance counter current chromatography (HPCCC)
and antibacterial tests using Mycobacterium
smegmatis mc² 155. One obtained fraction was
found to be antimycobacterially active with a MIC of
64 mg L–1. Furthermore, fractions were tested for resistance
modulatory effects using ethidium bromide as substrate. We were able to
identify the pure isoflavonic compounds irigenin and irilone and a fraction containing mainly
benzophenone 2,4,6-trihydroxy-4-methoxy-benzophenone,
responsible for the resistance-modulatory activity of this plant.
Keywords: Iris adriatica,
Radix Iridis, phenolic compounds, Mycobacterium smegmatis,
resistance modulation, ethidium bromide, MIC