Medicinal plants used for wound healing and skin diseases are the key to unlocking the doors to combating problematic skin diseases as resistance of pathogens to pharmaceuticals and allopathic management continues to increase. The study aimed at investigating the antimicrobial efficacies, phenolic content, and cytotoxicity effects of 11 medicinal plant extracts commonly used for treating skin conditions and wound healing in traditional medicine within KwaZulu-Natal. Eleven plant species were separated into different plant parts (bulbs, roots, leaves) and extracted with different solvents. The extracts were assessed for antimicrobial activity against six Gram-positive and seven Gram-negative bacterial strains and four fungi commonly associated with skin conditions using disc diffusion and microdilution techniques. The aqueous methanolic extracts were screened for phenolic content while cytotoxicity tests were performed on all extracts using the brine shrimp lethality and tetrazolium-based colorimetric (MTT) assays. Extracts from , and were the most active against almost all of the tested bacterial and fungal strains. All plant species exhibited some degree of antimicrobial activity. Total phenolic levels, flavonoids and tannins were also higher for , followed by and , respectively. The cytotoxicity results of all plant extracts were in the range of 90-100% survival after 24 h in the brine shrimp assay. Extracts considered lethal would demonstrate >50% shrimp death. The MTT cytotoxicity test yielded LC values of >1 mg/mL on all extracts indicating that they are not cytotoxic. The observed antimicrobial efficacy demonstrated by some plant species and the general lack of cytotoxic effects on all the tested extracts presents some promising and beneficial aspects of these medicinal plant extracts in the treatment of skin diseases and wound healing. The two species and were among the best extracts that exhibited consistently good antimicrobial activity and warrants further investigations and possible isolation of bioactive principles.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2016.00320 | DOI Listing |
Macromol Biosci
January 2025
Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), School of Chemical Engineering (FEQ), Albert Einstein Avenue, 500, Campinas, São Paulo, 13083-852, Brazil.
Annually, thousands of individuals suffer from skin injuries resulting from trauma, surgeries, or diabetes. Inadequate wound treatment can delay healing and increase the risk of severe infections. In this context, a promising synthetic polymer with potent antimicrobial properties, Poly{2-[(methacryloyloxy)ethyl]trimethylammonium chloride} (PMETAC), is synthesized and crosslinked with N,N'-Methylenebis(acrylamide) (BIS) in the presence of Chitosan (CH), a natural, biocompatible polysaccharide that promotes cell regeneration and provides additional beneficial properties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMacromol Biosci
January 2025
Cluster for Advanced Macromolecular Design (CAMD) and Australian Centre for NanoMedicine (ACN), School of Chemical Engineering, UNSW, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
Invasive fungal infections cause over 3.7 million deaths worldwide annually, underscoring the critical need for new antifungal agents. Developing selective antifungal agents is challenging due to the shared eukaryotic nature of both fungal and mammalian cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhytother Res
January 2025
College of Veterinary Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China.
The rising prevalence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Gram-positive bacteria threatens the effectiveness of current antibiotic therapies. However, the development of new antibiotics has stagnated in recent years, highlighted the critical need for the discovery of innovative antimicrobial agents. This study aims to evaluate the antibacterial activity of naphthoquinones derived from Arnebia euchroma (Royle) Johnst (ADNs) and elucidate their underlying mechanisms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Microbiol
December 2024
Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, National Risk Assessment Laboratory for Antimicrobial Resistance of Animal Original Bacteria, College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China.
Introduction: The emergence of the wide variety of novel tigecycline resistance (X) variants, including (X3), (X4), (X5), and (X6), has raised a serious threat to global public health and posed a significant challenge to the clinical treatment of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections.
Methods: In this study, we evaluated the synergism of tigecycline combining with other antibiotics as a means of overcoming the (X)-mediated resistance in spp. Antibiotic synergistic efficacy was evaluated through chequerboard experiments, time-kill assays and dose-response curves.
Front Microbiol
December 2024
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, INTI International University, Nilai, Malaysia.
Introduction: Lactic acid bacteria are prized for their probiotic benefits and gut health improvements. This study assessed five LAB isolates from Neera, with RAMULAB51 (, GenBank ON171686.1) standing out for its high hydrophobicity, auto-aggregation, antimicrobial activity, and enzyme inhibition.
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