Abstract
BackgroundRural populations in Uganda rely heavily on medicinal plants for the treatment of bacterial skin infections. However, the efficacy of these medicinal plants for their pharmacological action is not known. The study aimed at evaluating the antibacterial, antioxidant, and sun protection potential of Spermacoce princeae, Psorospermum febrifugum, Plectranthus caespitosus, and Erlangea tomentosa extracts.MethodsThe plant samples were extracted by maceration sequentially using hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, methanol, and distilled water. Antibacterial activity of each extract was carried out using an agar well diffusion assay against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonie, Streptococcus pyogenes, and Salmonella typhi. Acute dermal toxicity of the aqueous extract of S. princeae and P. febrifugum, and E. tomentosa was assessed in young adult healthy Wistar albino rats at a dose of 8000 and 10,000 mg/kg body weight. The antioxidant activity of each extract was carried out using a 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging assay. The sun protection factor was determined using Shimadzu UltraViolet-Visible double beam spectrophotometer between 290 and 320 nm.ResultsThe plant extracts showed good antibacterial activity against the tested bacterial strains with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) ranging between 3.12 and 12.5 mg/ml. There was no significant change in the levels of creatinine, alanine aminotransferase, and aspartate aminotransferase in the rats even at a higher dose of 10,000 mg/kg, which was related to the results of biochemical analysis of the blood samples from the treated and control groups. The aqueous and methanol extracts of S. princeae showed potential antioxidant properties, with half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values of 59.82 and 61.20 μg/ml respectively. The organic and aqueous extracts of P. caespitosus showed high levels of protection against Ultraviolet light with sun protection potential values ranging between 30.67 and 37.84.ConclusionsThe study demonstrated that the selected medicinal plants possessed good antibacterial, antioxidant, and sun protection properties. Therefore, the plants are alternative sources of antibacterial, antioxidant, and sun protection agents in managing bacterial skin infections.
Highlights
Bacterial skin infections are still a burden because of the emerging multi-drug resistant bacterial strains that mainly belong to the genus Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas, Escherichia, and Klebsiella [37, 42]
Extracts of the four plants were analyzed for antibacterial activity
The aqueous and Ethyl acetate (EtOAc) extract of P. caespitosus showed the highest zone of inhibition against P. aeruginosa at 20.0 and 20.7 mm respectively
Summary
Bacterial skin infections are still a burden because of the emerging multi-drug resistant bacterial strains that mainly belong to the genus Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas, Escherichia, and Klebsiella [37, 42]. Various topical and oral synthetic drugs such as erythromycin, doxycycline, fluconazole, and cefixime are available for the treatment of skin infections. Synthetic drugs have limitations concerning toxicity and side effects such as skin drying, headache, nausea, and loss of appetite [20, 24]. To overcome these limitations, there is a need for the development of effective, safe, and low-cost antibacterial drugs. Exploration of medicinal plant resources may provide valuable leads that can be further developed into antibacterial drugs. Rural populations in Uganda rely heavily on medicinal plants for the treatment of bacterial skin infections. The study aimed at evaluating the antibacterial, antioxidant, and sun protection potential of Spermacoce princeae, Psorospermum febrifugum, Plectranthus caespitosus, and Erlangea tomentosa extracts
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