Abstract
Buruli ulcer (BU) imposes a serious economic burden on affected households and on health systems that are involved in diagnosing the disease and treating patients. Research is needed to find cost-effective therapies for this costly disease. Plants have always been an important source of new pharmacologically active molecules. Consequently we decided to undertake the study of plants used in traditional treatment of BU in Benin and investigate their antimycobacterial activity as well as their chemical composition. Extracts from forty-four (44) plant species were selected on account of reported traditional uses for the treatment of BU in Benin and were assayed for antimycobacterial activities. Crude hydroethanolic extract from aerial parts of Holarrhena floribunda (G. Don) T. Durand and Schinz was found to have significant antimycobacterial activity against M. ulcerans (MIC = 125 µg/mL). We describe here the identification of four steroidal alkaloids from Mycobacterium ulcerans growth-inhibiting fractions of the alkaloidal extract of the aerial parts of Holarrhena floribunda. Holadysamine was purified in sufficient amount to allow the determination of its MCI (=50 µg/mL). These results give some support to the use of this plant in traditional medicine.
Highlights
Buruli ulcer (BU), caused by the environmental organism Mycobacterium ulcerans and characterized by necrotizing skin and bone lesions, poses important public health issues as the third most common mycobacterial infection in humans [1]
We describe here the identification of four steroidal alkaloids from Mycobacterium ulcerans growth-inhibiting fractions of the alkaloidal extract of the aerial parts of Holarrhena floribunda
Clinical diagnosis of BU disease should be confirmed by PCR, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), and case patients should be treated with rifampin/streptomycin
Summary
Buruli ulcer (BU), caused by the environmental organism Mycobacterium ulcerans and characterized by necrotizing skin and bone lesions, poses important public health issues as the third most common mycobacterial infection in humans [1]. Clinical diagnosis of BU disease should be confirmed by PCR, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), and case patients should be treated with rifampin/streptomycin. Most of the components in the traditional treatment belong to the plant kingdom [2]. We noted that about forty-nine different plants were used for the traditional treatment of BU. Different parts of these plants were included in various pharmaceutical forms for internal or external use [2]. We realized a screening of 44 plant extracts used in traditional medicine to treat BU [2, 3]. Results showed that crude hydroethanolic extract of Holarrhena floribunda was effective in inhibiting the growth of Mycobacterium ulcerans (MIC 125 μg/mL) and worth further investigations
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