DOI: https://doi.org/10.55373/mjchem.v24i4.161

Keywords: Plasmodium, Kibatalia maingayi, dereplication, compound discoverer

Abstract

Kibatalia maingayi (Hook.f.) Woodson belongs to the Apocynaceae family and is known as “jelutong pipit”. A preliminary study in this laboratory showed that the stem bark extract of K. maingayi inhibited the growth of Plasmodium falciparum with a high selectivity index, and the wood extract rich in alkaloids. To date, only one metabolite has been isolated from this plant. Further biological investigation on this plant is constrained by the lack of knowledge regarding its chemical components. Therefore, a dereplication approach was proposed to annotate and identify the known metabolites so that the isolation work can be directed toward new and/or potential known metabolites. The dichloromethane woods extract of Kibatalia maingayi was pre-treated with a C-18 solid-phase extraction and profiled using UHPLC, followed by LCMS analysis. Databases of metabolites from the Apocynaceae, genus Kibatalia and Kibatalia maingayi were constructed in Compound Discoverer 3.1 software. Nodes such as predicted compositions, mzCloud, ChemSpider, Mass Lists, mzLogic, and/or FISh scoring were applied to annotate metabolites. A total of 20 metabolites were detected in the woods part of Kibatalia maingayi, comprising 14 indole alkaloids and 6 fatty acids. Indole alkaloids such as penduflorines A to E from the Apocynaceae family were reported to possess antiplasmodial activity. As indole alkaloids are known to have good pharmacological potential, they will become the targeted metabolites for the next isolation and pharmacological studies.