Synthesis and medicinal properties of plant-derived vilangin

This article reports for the first time the antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant and anticancer activities of vilangin synthesised from embelin isolated from Embelia ribes berries. E. ribes is widely used as traditional herbal medicine in India. E. ribes is used as appetiser, carminative, anthelmintic, alexiteric, laxative and alterative. This plant is also used to treat tumour, ascites, bronchitis, mental diseases, dyspnoea, heart diseases, urinary discharges, jaundice, hemicrania, and worms in wounds. Here the major compound, embelin, was isolated from the fruits of E. ribes. Vilangin was synthesised by condensation of embelin with formaldehyde in acetic acid solution. The biological activity of vilangin is unknown so far. Hence, we studied antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant and anticancer activities of vilangin. The minimum inhibitory concentration value of vilangin was 62.5 μg/mL against Staphylococcus epidermidis and Salmonella typhimurium. The radical scavenging activity was maximum at 1,000 μg/mL. Ferric reducing antioxidant power assay of vilangin showed a twofold higher value compared to the standard. Vilangin showed 61.95 % of cytotoxic activity in vitro against A549 lung adenocarcinoma cancer cell line at a dose of 500 μg/mL with half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) of 400 μg/mL. Vilangin can thus be further tested as a new drug.