Antibacterial Flavonoids from Tetrapleura tetraptera (Fabaceae) Fruit Pulp, in Silico Studies

Abstract

Bacterial resistance to antimicrobials is a global public health concern. Tetrapleura tetraptera fruit pulp, an aromatic spice common in West-Central African culinary and of great folk interest was studied for antibacterial compounds. Part of the n-butanol fraction was chromatographed by column and HPLC yielding five compounds whose structures were determined from their spectroscopic data and confirmed with data in the literature as Butein 1; 7,30,40-trihydroxyflavone 2; (-) Butin 3, (+)-Butin 4; Luteolin 5. Compounds 4,1, 5, and 3 demonstrated best antibacterial activities with MICs ranging from 4 to 128 mg/mL. S. aureus was most susceptible bacterial species, with substances showing 100% inhibitory effects on all tested strains. In silico studies corroborated bioassay, suggesting enzyme inhibition as the mechanism of action of the isolated compounds. Hence these compounds or aqueous extract of the plant would be important in fighting bacterial infections including the resistance phenotypes. (c) 2025 SAAB. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.