Research Article
Pimarane Diterpenoids from Aerial Parts of Lycopus lucidus and
Their Antimicrobial Activity
Jitendra Pandey ,
1
Bang Yeon Hwang,
2
Hyeong-Kyu Lee,
3
and Amrit Poudel
4
1
Department of Pharmacy, Crimson College of Technology, Pokhara University, Devinagar-11, Butwal 32900, Nepal
2
Chungbuk National University, Department of Pharmacy, Cheongju, Republic of Korea
3
Natural Medicine Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience & Biotechnology,
Cheongju-si 363-883, Republic of Korea
4
Department of Biodiversity and Bioresources, Satvik Nepal, Dandakonak, Kaski, Pokhara 33700, Nepal
Correspondence should be addressed to Amrit Poudel; amritpoudel@gmail.com
Received 17 October 2021; Accepted 18 January 2022; Published 4 February 2022
Academic Editor: Rafael M. Ximenes
Copyright © 2022 Jitendra Pandey et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
properly cited.
e ethyl acetate fraction obtained from aerial parts of L. lucidus was subjected for isolation of new bioactive compounds, which
enabled isolation of five new pimarane-type diterpenoids, namely, 3β, 8β, 12β, 18-tetrahydroxy pimar-15-ene (10), 7α, 8β, 12β, 18-
tetrahydroxy pimar-15-ene (11), 3β, 8β, 11β, 12α, 18-pentahydroxy pimar-15-ene (12), 12β acetoxy, 8β, 3β, 18-trihydroxy pimar-
15-ene (13), and 3β acetoxy, 8β, 12β, 18-trihydroxy pimar-15-ene (14), along with nine known compounds. e structures were
elucidated by spectroscopic analysis and comparison with literature data. e isolated new pimarane diterpenoids were examined
for antimicrobial activity against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria strains. Among them, the compound 3β, 8β, 12β, 18-
tetrahydroxy pimar-15-ene (10) was most effective, exhibiting minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of 15.62 µg/mL
against Staphylococcus epidermidis, 31.25 µg/mL against Staphylococcus aureus, 62.5 µg/mL against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and
125 µg/mL against Escherichia coli.
1. Introduction
e genus Lycopus of family Lamiaceae (Labiatae) contains
around 16 species with wide distribution in Europe, Asia,
and North America [1]. In Asia, Lycopus lucidus is widely
distributed species in Korea, China, Japan, Russia, and
Taiwan. It is most abundant in Korea. L. lucidus is a
flowering perennial glabrous herb occurring in aquatic
environment and grows up to 0.6–1.2 m height at an altitude
of 320 m to 2100 m [2–4]. L. lucidus is one of the popular
edible plants with its long history as a folk remedy in tra-
ditional medicinal system of China, Japan, and Korea [5].
is plant has been used as both traditional and official
formulations, as they are potent source of bioactive tannins,
coumarins, flavonoids, terpenoids, and essential oils. Major
bioactive compounds that have been isolated from this plant
are flavonoid and its esters, rosmarinic acid derivatives,
phenylpropanoids, steroids, pentacyclic triterpenes, essen-
tial oils, oligosaccharides, polysaccharides, and diterpenoid
glycosides [3, 6–8]. e leaf and stem (aerial part) of
L. lucidus have been extensively used for the treatment of
inflammation, cardiovascular problem, insomnia, menstrual
problems, and thyroid problem, as a sedative, wound
healing, pain reliving agents, herbal tea, and useful tonic
[6, 8, 9]. e root of L. lucidus is known as small ginseng in
China and widely used as dietary supplement [10]. Many
biological activities such as inhibition of superoxide radical
[4], nitric oxide scavenging effect [6], inhibition of hyper-
cholesterolemia and atherosclerosis [11], acaricidal activities
[10], and hyaluronidase inhibition [5] have been explored
from this plant.
In the current scenario, bacterial infectious diseases are a
serious worldwide public health problem due to an increase
in their resistance towards antibiotics, which have ultimately
Hindawi
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Volume 2022, Article ID 5178880, 9 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/5178880