Antibacterial activity of xanthones from Garcinia mangostana (L.) and their structure-activity relationship studies.

Antibacterial activities of prenylated xanthones from Garcinia mangostana and their synthetic analogues were investigated, and their structure-activity relationships have been studied. γ-Mangostin has shown antibacterial activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), methicillin sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA), vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) and vancomycin-sensitive Enterococcus (VSE) strains at MICs 3.13, 6.25, 6.25 and 6.25 µg mL(-1), respectively. In these experiments, gentamicin was used as the positive control. Further, some analogues of γ-mangostin and α-mangostin were synthesised and their activity was tested against MRSA and VRE strains. The analysis of the bioassay results above indicated that, the combination of C-6 and C-3 hydroxyl groups along with the prenyl side chain at C-2 in the 1,3,6,7-tetraoxygenated xanthones from G. mangostana is essential to have a high antibacterial activity.