Antimicrobial activity of Rhus Coriaria L. and Salvia Urmiensis bunge against some food-borne pathogens and identification of active components using molecular networking and docking analyses

Abstract

This research aimed to evaluate the in vitro antibacterial activity of methanol extracts of Rhus coriaria L. (sumac) and Salvia urmiensis Bunge against some food-borne pathogens, survey the phytochemical constituents of the extracts, and their activity against some drug targets in pathogens. The antibacterial activity of the extracts was evaluated against six pathogens using agar well diffusion and broth microdilution methods. Both extracts exhibited antibacterial activity and the highest activity was obtained by sumac against Staphylococcus aureus (27.7 ± 0.8 mm). The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of sumac against tested bacteria were in the range of 0.125-0.5 and 0.25-1 mg/mL, respectively. S. urmiensis showed weaker antimicrobial activity with a MIC range of 2-4 mg/mL. A molecular networking analysis of extracts resulted in annotation of 18 and 12 compounds from the methanol extracts of S. urmiensis and sumac respectively, which mainly were related to flavonoids. Molecular docking analysis could effectively characterize some glycosylated flavonoids with a high binding affinity to the studied enzymes. This study confirmed the efficacy of sumac and S. urmiensis extracts as natural antimicrobial agents and introduced a wide range of compounds, which can be used in food preservation to control foodborne pathogens in food.