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Document heading
doi:
Fundacin MEDINA, Centro de Excelencia en Investigacin de Medicamentos Innovadores en Andaluca, Parque Tecnolgico de Ciencias de la
Salud, Avda. de Conocimiento 3, E-18016 Armilla, Granada, Spain
2
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Article history:
Received 10 June 2013
Received in revised form 15 July 2013
Accepted 15 August 2013
Available online 20 September 2013
Keywords:
Anti-fungal activity
Anti-bacterial activity
Ethanol extract
Chinese medicinal herb
1. Introduction
As per World Health Organization (WHO) reports, infectious
diseases are responsible for over 50% deaths worldwide,
occurring mainly in tropical and developing countries[1].
*Corresponding author: Sundar R Koyyalamudi, School of Science and Health,
University of Western Sydney, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, NSW 1797,
Australia.
Tel: +61 2 46203294
Fax: +61 2 46203017
E-mail: s.koyyalamudi@uws.edu.au
674
this direction.
Therefore, the search for new anti-microbial agents is a
high priority, especially in the tropical countries and other
developing nations where infectious diseases are rampant[13].
Hence, the identification of new sources of anti-microbial
compounds is an important task for the drug development
and the innovative strategies that will contribute to
the improvement of screening protocols are constantly
evolving[14].
T he approach for selecting plants varies from
random selection to more guided strategies such as
ethnopharmacological experience derived from traditional
practice. In the current study, some plants are carefully
selected on the basis of their ethnopharmacological and
traditional medicinal use[15,16]. In this study, the ethanol
extracts of 58 traditional medicinal plants were tested
against five microbial strains, i.e., A. fumigatus, C. albicans,
A. baumannii, P. aeruginosa and S. aureus using standard
anti-microbial assays.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Collection of medicinal plants
The dried plant materials were purchased from Beijing
Tong Ren Tang Chinese Herbal Medicine shop, Sydney,
Australia. The scientific names and family names are given
in Tables 1-3. The plant materials were ground to a fine
Table 1
List of plant species which showed activity in this study and also have known/reported anti-microbial activity.
S. No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
Plant species
Alpinae officinarum
Eucommia ulmoides Oliv.
Hedyotis diffusa Willd.
Ligustrum lucidum Ait.
Mahonia fortunei (Lindl.) Fedde
Paeouis suffuticosa Sndr.
Paris polyphylla
Pleione bulbocadioides (Franch.) Rolfe.
Ploygala tenuifolia Willd.
Polygonum aviculare L.
Polygonum cuspidatum
Pseudostellaria heterophylla (Miq.) Pax ex Pax et Hoffm.
Sarcandra glabra (Thunb.) Nakai
Schizandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baill.
Scutellaria barbata Don.
Solanum nigrum L.
Codonopsis pilosula Franch.
Akebia quinata (Houtt.) Decne.
Family
Zingaberaceae
Eucommiaceae Engler.
Rubiaceae
Moraceae
Berberidaceae
Ranunculaceae
Trilliaceae
Orchidaceae
Polygalaceae
Polygonaceae
Polygonaceae
Caryophyllaceae
Chloranthaceae
Schisandraceae
Labiatae
Solanaceae
Cam-panulaceae
Lardizabalaceae
Traditional use
Anti-fungal[34]
Anti-fungal[28]
Anti-microbial[35]
Anti-microbial[35]
Anti-fungal[32]
Anti-microbial[35]
Anti-fungal[33]
Anti-bacterial[36]
Anti-microbial[35]
Anti-microbial[37]
Anti-viral[35]
Anti-fungal[30]
Anti-microbial[34]
Anti-viral[34]
Anti-microbial[29]
Anti-microbial[35]
Anti-microbial, anti-oxidant[38]
Anti-bacterial[35]
Table 2
List of plant species which showed activity in this study, but without reported antimicrobial activity.
S. No
Plant species
Family
Traditional use
1
Acanltopanax senticosus
Araliaceae
No appropriate literature
Aster tataricus L.
Asteraceae
Anti-tumour[35]
2
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Artemisia vulgaris L.
Asteraceae
Compositae
Asclepiadaceae
Lysimachia
Emmenagogue[39]
Anti-tumour[35]
Anti-proliferative properties[40]
Anti-cancer[35]
Polyporaceae
Anti-cancer[35]
Semen coicis L.
Poaceae
Anti-cancer[35]
Tussilago farfara L.
Asteraceae
Antiseptic; antiphlogistic[42]
Apiaceae
Smilacaceae
Rubiaceae
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Anti-cancer[41]
Anti-cancer[35]
Table 3
List of plant species which did not show activity in this study.
S. No
Plant species
Family
Traditional use
Acanthaceae
Asparagaceae
Anti-cancer[35]
Curcuma aromatica
Zingiberaceae
Anti-cancer[35]
Cyperaceae
Anti-bacterial[35]
4
5
7
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
Cyperus rotundus L.
Actinidiaceae
Papaveraceae
Zingiberaceae
Rosaceae
Labiatae
Anti-lipase[44]
Anti-cancer[35]
Anti-bacterial[35]
Anti-cancer[35]
Anti-tumour[35]
Campanulaceae
Anti-cancer[46]
Araceae
Anti-tumour[35]
Paeoniaceae
Plantaginaceae
Campanulaceae
Asteraceae
Anti-inflammatory[35]
Anti-inflammatory[35]
Anti-inflammatory[35]
Anti-fungal[35]
Prunella vulgaris L.
Lamiaceae
Anti-bacterial[35]
Phrymaceae
Anti-tumour[35]
Labiatae
Polygonaceae
Caspase
Rosaceae
Labiatae
Solanaceae
Fabaceae
Fabaceae
Leguminosae
Loranthaceae
Viscaceae
Anti-inflammatory[35]
Anti-tumour[35]
Anti-tumour[35]
Antimicrobial[42]
Anti-tumour[35]
Anti-tumour[34]
Anti-inflammatory[35]
Anti-tumour[35]
Anti-bacterial[35]
Anti-virus[35]
Anti-tumour[47]
676
677
678
Table 4
Anti-fungal activities of medicinal plant extracts towards Aspergillus fumigatus and Candida albicans (%).
S. No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Plant species
Solanum nigrum
Poria cocos
Codonopsis pilosula
Eucommia ulmoides
Atractylodes macrocephala
Polygonum cuspidatum
Ligustrum lucidum
Ploygala tenuifolia
Saposhnikovia divaricata
Mahonia fortunei
Cynanchum paniculatum
Lobelia chinensis Lour
Tussilago farfara
Aster tataricus
Uncaria rhyncophylla
All data are expressed as meanSEM. Mean: Mean value of % inhibition of growth.
Table 5
Anti-bacterial activities of medicinal plant extracts towards Acinetobact baumannii and Pseudomon aeruginosa (gram-negative bacteria) (%).
S. No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Plant species
Artemisia vulgaris
Sarcandra glabra
Poria cocos
Eucommia ulmoides
Polygonum cuspidatum
Polygonum aviculare
Akebia quinata
Alpinae officinarum
Scutellaria barbata
Acanltopanax senticosus
Uncaria rhyncophylla
Hedyotis diffusa
All data are expressed as meanSEM. Mean: Mean value of % inhibition of growth.
679
Table 6
Anti-bacterial activities of medicinal plant extracts towards Staphylococcus aureus (gram positive bacteria) (%).
S. No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Plant species
Artemisia vulgaris
Sarcandra glabra
Poria cocos
Pseudostellaria heterophylla
Paeouis suffruticosa
Eucommia ulmoides
Polygonum cuspidatum
Ligustrum lucidum
Ploygala tenuifolia
Polygonum aviculare
Akebia quinata
Alpinae officinarum
Scutellaria barbata
Schizandra chinensis
Acanltopanax senticosus
Paris polyphylla
Smilax glabra
Pleione bulbocadioides
Tussilago farfara
Aster tataricus
Uncaria rhyncophylla
Hedyotis diffusa
Semen coicis
1.00 mg/mL
971
981
1307
1011
1033
1173
1012
1043
991
1000
680
1032
942
1022
1031
994
970
994
1051
970
991
6113
973
All data are expressed as meanSEM. Mean: Mean value of % inhibition of growth.
4. Discussion
Infective diseases due to microbes such as A. fumigatus,
C. albicans, A. baumannii, P. aeruginosa and S. aureus, are
extremely prevalent and responsible for mortality around
the world[1-9]. The mortality rate may continue to increase
in the future for two reasons: (i) lack of sufficient supply of
antibiotics in developing countries and (ii) non-availability
of anti-microbial agents to tackle antibiotic resistant strains
of pathogens. Medicinal plants have received a significant
attention as new sources of anti-microbial agents to address
these issues. The synergistic effect of plant based flavonoids
in combination with conventional antibiotics is proving to
be an important new direction in complementary medicine
research[5]. In this respect, it is important to note that less
than 10% of higher plant species are analysed for their
bioactivity[24] and hence present great potential.
In the current study, 30 out of the carefully selected 58
plant species displayed anti-microbial properties against
one or more microbial strains, while remaining were found
to be inactive. Of all the 30 active species, 23 plants were
found to inhibit gram-positive bacterial strains (S. aureus)
and 12 of these plants also showed inhibition against the
gram-negative bacteria (A. baumannii and P. aeruginosa).
On the other hand, 15 plant extracts showed anti-fungal
properties by inhibiting either A. fumigatus or C. albicans.
The results suggest that more plants possess anti-bacterial
0.01 mg/mL
01
21
02
02
11
21
12
01
42
21
22
21
13
11
11
22
11
21
12
11
11
113
52
680
Acknowledgments
This work was funded by the University of Western Sydney
and the Fundacin MEDINA, a public-private partnership
of Merck Sharp & Dohme de Espaa S.A./Universidad de
Granada/Junta de Andaluca.
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