Abstract
The fruit of mulberry trees (Morus sp.), mulberries, are traditionally utilised as a nutritional food and provide health benefits as well as skin nourishment in Thailand. White mulberries (Morus alba L.) from Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son provinces were evaluated for their antioxidant and antibacterial activities. The antioxidant activities as well as the total phenolic, flavonoid and anthocyanin content of the aqueous and ethanolic extracts were determined using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2′-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzothiazolin-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays. The aqueous extracts of mulberries exhibited the highest antioxidant activity, which was associated with a higher phenolic and anthocyanin content. In testing the potent antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli, Salmonella Typhi, Shigella dysenteriae, Staphylococcus aureus and Vibrio cholerae, the mulberry extracts proved to be quite efficient, especially following water extraction. Time-kill and antibacterial adhesion assays further indicated that aqueous mulberry extracts could inhibit bacterial growth and prevent adhesions of pathogenic enteric bacteria on intestinal epithelial cells. It thus appears that mulberries can potentially be consumed as a good source of antioxidants, containing antimicrobial properties against some pathogenic bacteria which cause gastrointestinal tract infections.
Highlights
The DPPH radical scavenging activity and ABTS radical cation decolorization activity were calculated for all extracts as IC50, i.e., the concentration of the extracts required to inhibit 50% of the initial free radical (Table 1)
These results indicated that the white mulberry extracts exhibited various degrees of free radical cation activities as lower IC50 values are indicative of a higher antioxidant activity
The IC50 of both DPPH and ABTS were significantly higher in ethanolic extracts compared to the aqueous extracts of mulberries from Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son provinces, respectively, which indicated a higher antioxidant activity in aqueous extracts
Summary
Pathogenic enteric bacteria are the main causative agents of human gastrointestinal tract infections and remain a prominent public health concern worldwide [1]. They can cause serious infectious diseases such as cholera with Vibrio cholerae, dysentery with. While rehydration therapy coupled with antibiotic treatment can be prescribed during the illness, especially in the case of severe diarrhoea, incautious antibiotic treatment can lead to the development of multi-drug resistant bacteria and/or chronic carriers [3]. The distribution of antimicrobial resistance is of global concern, and natural compounds with high pharmacological activity and low cytotoxicity can be an alternative either in supplement or for replacement of antibiotics [4]
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