Abstract
The costus Saussurea lappa is a well-known medicinal plant that has been widely used in the traditional medicines in many Asian countries. Here, we report on the chemistry of the ethanol and water extracts of S. lappa roots using gas chromatography mass spectrometry analysis (GC/MS). We further tested their antimicrobial activities against Staphylococcus aureus (Gram +ve) and Salmonella sp. (Gram –ve) isolates. The GC/MS analysis indicate that the ethanol extract has more compounds (37) than does the aqueous extract (18) with sesquiterpene lactones as the most abundant compounds in both extracts. The results also reveal that the ethanol extract has significant antimicrobial activity against S. aureus isolate and no effect was observed against Salmonella sp isolate. In contrast, weak effects were found in the water extract against S. aureus and no effect against Salmonella sp isolate. Together with the GC/MS analyses, we conclude that the ethanol extract contains active secondary metabolites that may have a specific activity likely in a synergy effects with other metabolites against Gram +ve bacteria (18-20 mm inhibition-zone) but not Gram –ve isolate, indicating a specific mode of action. Therefore, S. lappa might be used as a potential anti-microbial agent against S. aureus and possibly other Gram +ve strains. Nonetheless, further studies are required to get insights into mechanistic basis of actions of these compounds found in the ethanol extracts.
Highlights
The importance of plants as future sources of natural antimicrobial agents holds great promise
Saussurea lappa is a well-known medicinal plant that has been widely prescribed as whole plant, rhizome, or root in the traditional medicine in different developing countries in Asia (Pandey et al, 2007)
In order to expand our knowledge in this important medicinal plant and further investigate the reasons behind the strong antibacterial activities of S. lappa that have been shown, in many previous studies, to have convincingly various pharmacological activities, such as anti-inflammatory, anti-ulcer, hepatoprotective, and antimicrobial activities (Chen et al, 1995; Damre et al, 2003; Li et al, 2005; Matsuda et al, 2000; Venkataranganna et al, 1998), we have chosen the S. lappa roots (Fig. 1) that is available commercially for medicinal purposes and analyzed, using gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS) approach, the chemical constituents found in the aqueous and ethanol extracts of the plant roots
Summary
The importance of plants as future sources of natural antimicrobial agents holds great promise. Plants are inexpensive and proved to be effective medicines to cure myriad of diseases from mild microbial infections to complex diseases, including cancers and devastating infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis with much less side effects when compared to the synthetic drugs (Abuzeid et al, 2014; Eklund et al, 2010; Koko et al, 2008) These advantages have encouraged scientists of different disciplines from chemistry to. Many studies have shown that different extracts of S. lappa possess various pharmacological activities, including hepatoprotective, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and anti-ulcer properties (Chen et al, 1995; Cho et al, 2004; Li et al, 2005) This wide range of biological activities can be confidently attributed to the richness of S. lappa in pharmacologically active ingredients (Pandey et al, 2007). Active sesquiterpenes lactones, such as costunolide and dehydrocostus lactone, were previously isolated from the methanolic extracts of S. lappa (Shoji et al, 1986), and appeared to have an anti-inflammatory activity that causes an inhibition of the production of the tumor necrosis factor alpha in murine macrophage-like cells as well as possessing a strong anti-cancer activity when mixed together (Damre et al, 2003; Peng et al, 2017; Sunkara et al, 2010)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
