Antimicrobial metabolites from Australian Acacia

Abstract

As part of an investigation into traditional Australian Aboriginal bush medicine a range of Acacia species have been examined. Several species have been reported to be utilised for the preparation of antimicrobial washes and lotions by Aboriginal tribes. Initial bioactivity screening focussed on antimicrobial activity of the polar/and or non-polar extracts of air dried plant material, and a range of interesting activity has been found. Specifically, of the 94 extracts of Acacia species screened, five showed activity against the fungus C.albicans, 47 showed activity showed activity against the gram positive bacteria S.aureus and five showed activity against the gram negative bacteria E.coli. A retrosynthetic analysis and total synthesis of the novel anisidine alkaloid isolated from Acacia trineura was attempted. A variety of methodologies to generate the lithiate of anisidine and subsequently trap with an appropriate electrophile were attempted. While the results only indicated which methods were appropriate, they did give strong leads for future work in this direction

Date of Award	1998
Original language	English