Antioxidant and antimicrobial constituents of licorice: Isolation and structure elucidation of a new benzofuran derivative.

Abstract

A new 2-arylbenzofuran derivative named licocoumarone (IIa) was isolated from commercially available xibei licorice (seihoku kanzo) along with a known 3-arylcoumarin derivative, glycycoumarin (Ia), and the structure of IIa was elucidated as 2-(2, 4-dihydroxyphenyl)-6-hydroxy-4-methoxy-5-(3-methyl-2-butenyl)coumarone on the basis of spectroscopic and chemical studies. Both Ia and IIa exhibited antimicrobial activities, whereas only IIa had antioxidant activity.