Abstract
The 80% ethanol extracts from 20 Chinese herbal medicines collected in Yunnan Province, China, were screened for antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus (SA), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Escherichia coli (EC) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA), including antifugal activity against Candida albicans (CA) by the agar hole diffusion test. The extracts were prepared through macerating at room temperature and hot refluxing procedures. 19 of the 20 extracts showed effects with different potency and their inhibition zone diameters (IZD) ranged from 9 to 27 mm. The extracts from Psychotria henryi Levl and Marsdenia tinctoria R. Br. (maceration and reflux extraction) were the most active against both SA and MRSA, with mean IZDs = 19.7 to 22.0 mm. The anti-SA and MRSA active extracts were further determined for minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) by serial dilution with a standard broth microdilution method. 12 extracts showed effects on both SA and MRSA strains with MICs/MBCs ranges among 32 to ≥ 1024 / 64 to ≥ 1024 mg/L, respectively. P. henryi, M. tinctoria and Sapium baccatum Roxb also showed inhibition against EC, PA and CA strains, and displayed a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activities. Key words: Chinese herbal, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC).
Highlights
Since methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus (MRSA) occurred in early 1961 (Jevons, 1961), it has become a troublesome pathogen responsible for serious infections owing to its resistance to a large group of antibacterial agents, resulting in high morbidity and mortality
SA, that is, methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA, ATCC25923) and other standard strains of Escherichia coli (EC), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) and Candida albicans (CA) are shown in Table 3. 19 of the 20 extracts showed effects with different potency and their inhibition zone diameters (IZD) ranged from 9 to 27 mm
The screening results revealed that most of the plant extracts were much more active against Gram positive pathogen (SA) than those of Gram negative pathogens (EC and PA), which is a common phenomenon of plant antimicrobial property (Tegos et al, 2002)
Summary
Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) occurred in early 1961 (Jevons, 1961), it has become a troublesome pathogen responsible for serious infections owing to its resistance to a large group of antibacterial agents, resulting in high morbidity and mortality. It is resistant to β-lactam antibiotics, and to other antibacterial groups, such as fluoroquinolones, tetracyclines, macrolides, lincosamides and aminoglycosides. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has accounted for a wealth of health needs over thousands of years in. A great number of plant species have been used as healing herbs in TCM for the treatment of infectious diseases, such as skin ulcers, cold, diarrhea, pneumonitis and tuberculosis, etc (Jiangsu New Medical College, 1977; Sima et al, 2012; Jinous and Fereshteh, 2012; Muhammad et al, 2012)
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