Phytochemical and anti-staphylococcal biofilm assessment of Dracaena draco L. Spp. draco resin

BACKGROUND: Dracaena draco L. ssp. draco is known as the “dragon's blood tree” and it is endemic from the Canary Islands and Morocco. OBJECTIVE: Carry out phytochemical investigation of acetonic extracts of red resin obtained from the trunk of D. draco, to obtain to the isolation of the most abundant resin constituents, belonging to the class of flavonoids: flavans, along with homoisoflavans and homoisoflavanones. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The structures of the isolated compounds were established by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry data and comparison with literature data. The acetonic extract was evaluated for its anti-staphylococcal properties against two reference strains. RESULTS: The acetonic extracts resulted inactive at the maximum tested concentration of 1000 μg/ml against free living forms of tested staphylococci, but they showed a very interesting activity in the prevention of a biofilm formation at a concentration equal to 200 μg/ml against S. aureus ATCC 25923.