Abstract
The antibacterial and antifungal activities of various extracts from Urtica urens were evaluated against selected microorganisms using agar hole-plate diffusion method. A total of ten extracts namely U. urens hexane leaf extract (HLE), chloroform leaf extract (CLE), ethyl acetate leaf extract (ELE), methanolic leaf extract (MLE), hexane stem-bark extract (HSB), chloroform stem-bark extract (CSB), ethyl acetate stem-bark extract (ESB), methanolic stem-bark extract (MSB), chloroform root extract (CRT) and methanolic root extract (MRT) were prepared. These extracts were evaluated against two Gram-positive bacteria viz. Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus, four Gram-negative bacteria viz. Serratia marcescens, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli (wild strain) and Escherichia coli (O157:H7) and two fungal isolates viz. Candida albicans and Penicillium digitatum. The inhibition zones of these extracts were found to be in the range of 9.0±0.0 to 40.5±0.7 mm against bacterial isolates and 16.0±4.2 to 17.5±4.9 mm against C. albicans. However, all these extracts exhibited no visible zone of inhibition against P. digitatum. Additionally, the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of these extracts were also determined and were found to be in the range of <31.25 to >1000 µg/mL against both bacterial and fungal isolates. From this study, we concluded that ELS, MLE, CRT and MRT showed promising antimicrobial activities.
Highlights
Urtica urens belongs to the Urticaceae family of the Urtica genus (Schellman et al, 2008; Nencu et al, 2015; Lati et al, 2017)
Against L. monocytogenes, all extracts showed a moderate activity with inhibition zones in the range of 11.5±0.7 to 21.5±1.4 mm and ethyl acetate leaf extract (ELE) showed a significant strong activity with an inhibition zone of 21.5±1.4 mm
We evaluated the antifungal activity of these extracts against P. digitatum
Summary
Urtica urens belongs to the Urticaceae family of the Urtica genus (Schellman et al, 2008; Nencu et al, 2015; Lati et al, 2017). It is known by other names such as small nettle, dwarf nettle and burning nettle. The antimicrobial activity of chloroform, ethanolic and aqueous extracts from leaves of U. urens collected in Tunisia and Eritrea have previously been reported (Kaushik et al, 2015; Barkaoui et al, 2017; Mzid et al, 2017). The objective of the current study was to evaluate the antibacterial and antifungal activities of hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanolic extracts from leaves, stem-bark and root of U. urens collected from the Kingdom of Lesotho, Southern Africa
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