Two new compounds, garciniacowol (1) and garciniacowone (2) along with 15 known
compounds were isolated from the stem barks of Garcinia cowa. Their structures were
determined by intensive spectroscopic methods. The structure of 1 was a symmetrical dimeric
dihydrobenzopyran derivative, whereas the framework of 2 was a triprenyl caged-xanthone
precursor. The antibacterial activities against Escherichia coli TISTR 780, Salmonella
typhimurium TISTR 292, Staphylococcus aureus TISTR 1466, and methicillin-resistant S. aureus
(MRSA) SK1 of the isolated compounds were also evaluated. Compounds 2 and 9 exhibited
good antibacterial activity against MRSA SK1 with the same minimum inhibitory concentration
(MIC) value of 2 μg/mL. Moreover, compound 2 also showed good antibacterial activity
against S. aureus with an MIC value of 2 μg/mL.