Abstract:
A biologically guided isolation of secondary metabolites from Cousinia alata Schrenk wild plant growing in Akmola region,
Kazakhstan, led to the isolation of the bioactive diterpene grindelic acid (1). Six flavonoids were also isolated and identified as
retusine (2), pachipodol (3), jaranol (4), penduletin (5), casticin (6), and 5, 7, 3′-trihydroxy-3, 4′-dimethoxyflavone (7). Penduletin
(5) showed moderate cytotoxic activity assay. Grindelic acid exhibited promising cytotoxic activity against the Artemia salina
nauplii and antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, and Salmonella enteritidis. .e presence of the
essential pharmacophoric features of histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors in the structure of grindelic acid encouraged us to
run a molecular docking study against the HDAC enzyme to understand its mechanism of action on a molecular level. Grindelic
acid showed a binding mode of interaction similar to that of the cocrystallized ligand and exhibited good binding affinity against
HDAC with the binding free energy of −18.70 kcal/mol. .e structures of isolated compounds were determined by MS, 1D, and
2D NMR spectroscopy methods. Compounds (1–7) were isolated for the first time from Cousinia genus.
