Antimalarial activity of sesquiterpene lactones from Vernonia cinerea

Two new sesquiterpene lactones, vernolides C and D as well as six known ones were isolated from the dichloromethane fraction of an aqueous extract from Vernonia cinerea. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic methods. Among the known sesquiterpene lactones, three of them were described in this plant for the first time. In vitro antiplasmodial evaluation showed that the three major compounds 1, 7 and 8 were active against chloroquine resistant Plasmodium falciparum strain (W2) with IC(50) 3.9, 3.7 and 3.5 microM, respectively.