Recent reports reveal that there is increasing incidence of infections of multidrug-resistant bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). Flavonoids and related compounds have been shown to possess potent antimicrobial activities. Most of the flavonoids are considered as constitutive antimicrobial substances recently termed as “Phytoanticipins,” especially those belonging to prenylated flavonoids and isoflavones. The current review highlights the structure prerequisites for isoflavones as antibacterial agents. Structure–activity relationship (SAR) conclusions have been drawn by comparing the reported minimum inhibitory concentration values for the various isoflavones against S. aureus and MRSA. There exists a significant co-relationship between the presence of certain functional groups (prenyl group, phenolic hydroxyl) at particular positions and antibacterial activity of the compounds. These trends have been postulated with a view of assisting better drug designing of future next-generation antiinfectives, particularly against the bothersome multidrug-resistant microbes. The SAR of these isoflavones has also proved to be a basis to explore the mechanism of antibacterial action. Thus, the study would prove extremely useful to synthesize antibacterial isoflavones in future, which would eventually be beneficial for optimizing the lead molecule for the antibacterial action

LE LDPI thus has a promising potential to be explored as an effective anti-tubercular medicine or as an adjunct to existing anti-tubercular drugs.

Glabridin is a major bioactive phytoconstituent of licorice. This work discusses the development and validation of HPLC and HPTLC methods for analysis of glabridin in licorice. The HPLC separation was performed using a Purospher STAR RP-18e column (5 μm silica particle size, 250 mm × 4.6 mm inner diameter) with gradient elution of 0.2% acetic acid in water-acetonitrile. The flow rate was 1 mL/min. Quantification was performed at a detection wavelength of 280 nm. HTPLC separation was performed on precoated silica gel 60 F254 aluminum plate (10 × 10 cm, 250 μm thickness). A linear ascending development was done using a mobile phase of hexane-ethyl acetate-chloroform (5 + 4 + 3, v/v/v). After development, the plates were scanned at 285 nm. Both of the methods provided good separation of glabridin from other constituents of licorice extract. The methods were validated as per ICH guidelines. Comparison by Student t-test showed that there was a statistically insignificant difference between the mean glabridin content estimated by both methods at 95% confidence interval. The glabridin content in licorice extract was 3.90% by HPLC and 3.79% by HPTLC.

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