Molecules (Mar 2014)

Structures of Two New Flavonoids and Effects of Licorice Phenolics on Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus Species

  • Eerdunbayaer,
  • Mohamed A. A. Orabi,
  • Hiroe Aoyama,
  • Teruo Kuroda,
  • Tsutomu Hatano

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules19043883
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 19, no. 4
pp. 3883 – 3897

Abstract

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Since our previous study revealed that several licorice phenolics have antibacterial effects on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and suppressive effects on the oxacillin resistance of MRSA, we further investigated effectiveness of licorice constituents on vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) bacteria, and purified 32 phenolic compounds. Two flavonoids among them were characterized structurally, and identified their structures as demethylglycyrol (31) and 5,7-di-O-methylluteone (32), respectively. Examination of antibacterial effects of licorice phenolics showed that 3-arylcoumarins such as licoarylcoumarin (9) and glycycoumarin (26), and 2-arylcoumarones such as gancaonin I (17), have moderate to potent antibacterial effects on the VRE strains used in this study.

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