Phytochemistry and antimycobacterial activity of Chlorophytum inornatum

In a project to investigate plant derived natural products from the Liliaceae with activity against fast-growing strains of mycobacteria, we have identified two new metabolites from Chlorophytum inornatum. The active principle, a new homoisoflavanone (1) was identified as 3-(4′-methoxybenzyl)-7,8-methylenedioxy-chroman-4-one. The metabolite assigned as 7-(1′-hydroxyethyl)-2-(2″-hydroxyethyl)-3,4-dihydrobenzopyran (2) was characterised by extensive 1- and 2D NMR spectroscopy. The antimycobacterial activity of this plant was mainly due to the homoisoflavonoid which exhibited minimum inhibitory values ranging from 16–256 μg/ml against four strains of fast-growing mycobacteria.