Three isoflavanoids, isovestitol (1), medicarpin (2), and sativan (3), along with another known compound, betulinic acid (4), were isolated from the root of Sesbania grandiflora. The structures of the isolated compounds were characterised by means of spectroscopic techniques (UV, IR, MS, 1H- and 13C-NMR, DEPT, COSY, HMQC, HMBC, and MS analysis). All the tested compounds 1-4 exhibited antituberculosis activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv, with MIC values of 50 µg/mL for compounds 1-3, and 100 µg/mL for compound 4, whereas, the methanol extract exhibited antituberculosis activity of 625 µg/mL. This is the first report on the occurrence of isoflavonoids in this plant and their antituberculosis activity.
Black soldier fly (BSF) larva is an attractive animal feed replacer due to its noticeable nutritional content. However, the conventional rearing method often resulted in BSF with undesirably high heavy metal residues that are harmful to animals. In this work, putrefied Sesbania grandiflora (S. Grandiflora) leaves were employed as feed to rear BSF larvae. The resultant BSF prepupae were found to contain 43.5% protein and 16.7% fat, reflecting a comparable protein content and a 2-fold reduction in crude fat than those reared using conventional kitchen waste. Moreover, high quantities of arginine (25.4 g/kg dry matter basis (DM)), carnitine (32.9 g/kg DM), and short-chain fatty acids, including lauric (40.00%), palmitic (19.20%), and oleic (12.10%) acids, have also been noticed in the BSF prepupae. Furthermore, the BSF larvae have been recorded with 0.185 mg/kg chromium, 0.380 mg/kg selenium, and mercury below the detection limit, which is far lower than those reared using conventional kitchen and agricultural wastes (≈1.7 mg/kg chromium, 1.2 mg/kg selenium, and 0.2 mg/kg mercury). Overall, the study shows that the nutritional quality of BSF prepupae is extensively improved when using S. Grandiflora as their feed. The resultant BSF prepupae may serve as an alternative feed for animal rearing.
A new 2-arylbenzofuran, sesbagrandiflorain C (1), together with four known compounds, 2-(3,4-dihydroxy-2-methoxyphenyl)-4-hydroxy-6-methoxybenzofuran-3-carbaldehyde (2), 2-(4-hydroxy-2-methoxyphenyl)-5,6-dimethoxybenzofuran-3-carboxaldehyde (3), sesbagrandiflorain A (4) and sesbagrandiflorain B (5), have been isolated from the stem bark of an Indonesian plant, Sesbania grandiflora (L.) Pers. The chemical structure of compound 1 was elucidated by UV, IR, MS, and NMR spectroscopic techniques. The proton and carbon NMR resonances of 1 were also compared with the predicted chemical shifts obtained from DFT quantum mechanical calculations with Gaussian. None of the compounds showed antibacterial activity against Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Mycobacterium smegmatis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus in an agar diffusion assay. However, sesbagrandiflorains A (4) and B (5) exhibited moderate activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv. In addition, compounds 1 - 5 have moderate cytotoxicity against HeLa, HepG2, and MCF-7 cancer cell lines.