Title: Antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-cholinesterase and mutagenic effects of extracts obtained from some trees used in South African traditional medicine
Abstract: Extracts obtained from 10 trees used in South African traditional medicine were screened for antibacterial, anti-inflammatory (COX-1 and COX-2) and anti-cholinesterase activities and investigated for potential mutagenic effects using the Ames test. Antibacterial activity was detected using the disc-diffusion and micro-dilution assays. The extracts were tested against Gram-positive bacteria: Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Micrococcus luteus and Gram-negative bacteria: Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Of the 78 different plant extracts investigated, 80% showed activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria in the disc-diffusion assay. In the micro-dilution assay, 60% of the plant extracts showed minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values ≤1.56 mg ml−1. The lowest MIC value (0.092 mg ml−1) was recorded for an ethyl acetate root extract of Acacia sieberiana against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. In the anti-inflammatory assay, 70% of the investigated plant extracts (0.25 mg ml−1) inhibited both COX-1 and COX-2 activity (>50% and 70% for water and organic solvent extracts, respectively). An ethyl acetate leaf extract of Trichilia dregeana showed selective inhibition of COX-2 (81%). In the acetylcholinesterase inhibitory test, 21% of the plant extracts were active at a concentration ≤1 mg ml−1 using the micro-dilution assay. The lowest IC50 value was 0.04 mg ml−1 obtained with an ethanol bark extract of Combretum kraussii. None of the investigated plants showed any potential mutagenic effects.
Publication Year: 2005
Publication Date: 2005-10-18
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref', 'pubmed']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 219
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