A New Phenolic Compound With Antimicrobial Activity From <i>Valeriana jatamansi</i> Jones

Natural products have long been regarded as an important source of lead compounds for innovative drugs due to their unique structural diversity and biological activities. The rhizomes of Valeriana jatamansi Jones (Valerianaceae), a plant incorporated in the Chinese materia medica, have been widely employed in southwestern China to treat diarrhoea, infections, and anxiety. To further explore its active ingredients, in the present study, a phytochemical investigations of V. jatamansi, resulted in the identification of a novel olivetolic acid analog, jatamanine (1), accompanied by sixteen previously reported compounds (2-17): β-sitosterol (2), β-sitostenone (3), deacylbaldrinal (4), 11-ethoxyviburtinal (5), baldrinal (6), jatamanin A (7), 1,5-dihydroxy-3,8-epoxyvalechlorine A (8), chlorovaltrate A (9), desoxidodidrovaltrate (10), valeriananoid C (11), vanillin (12), vanillic acid (13), p-hydroxybenzaldehyde (14), coniferaldehyde (15), scopoletin (16), and 3-methyl-2-(3-methyl-1-oxobutoxy)butanoic acid (17). Structural elucidation was accomplished by detailed spectroscopic analysis. Compounds 1, 3, 12, 15, and 17 were identified as unreported constituents of this plant. Significantly, the nuclear magnetic resonance spectral information of 17 is newly reported in this work. Antimicrobial screening results indicated that compound 1 possessed substantial inhibitory activity, exhibiting minimum inhibitory concentration values of 4 mg/L against both Escherichia coli and Candida albicans, while showing 8 mg/L toward Bacillus subtilis and 16 mg/L against Staphylococcus aureus.