Antibacterial Activity and Cytotoxicity of Selected Egyptian Medicinal Plants

Abstract

Medicinal plants have been used as a source of remedies since ancient times in Egypt. The present study was designed to investigate the antibacterial activity and the cytotoxicity of the organic extracts from 16 selected medicinal plants of Egypt. The study was also extended to the isolation of the antiproliferative compound jaeschkeanadiol p-hydroxybenzoate (FH-25) from Ferula hermonis. The microbroth dilution was used to determine the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the samples against twelve bacterial strains belonging to four species, Providencia stuartii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Escherichia coli, while a resazurin assay was used to assess the cytotoxicity of the extracts on the human pancreatic cancer cell line MiaPaCa-2, breast cancer cell line MCF-7, CCRF-CEM leukemia cells, and their multidrug resistant subline, CEM/ADR5000. The results of the MIC determination indicated that all the studied crude extracts were able to inhibit the growth of at least one of the tested bacterial species, the best activity being recorded with the crude extracts from F. hermonis and Vitis vinifera, whichwere active against 91.7% and 83.3% of the studied bacteria, respectively. The lowest MIC value of 128 μg/mL was recorded against P. stuartii ATCC 29916 and E. coli ATCC 10536 with the extract from V. vinifera and Commiphora molmol, respectively. In the cytotoxicity study, IC50 values below 20 μg/mL were recorded for the crude extract of F. hermonis on all four studied cancer cell lines. FH-25 also showed good cytotoxicity against MCF-7 cells (IC50: 2.47 μg/mL). Finally, the results of the present investigation provided supportive data for the possible use of the plant extracts investigated herein, mostly F. hermonis and V. vinifera in the treatment of bacterial infections and jaeschkeanadiol p-hydroxybenzoate in the control of cancer diseases.

Untitled

“…[36] F. asafoetida has been reported to possess ferulic acid and farnesiferols which can prevent angiogenesis, vascular endothelial growth factor accelerated processes and the development of mouse Lewis lung cancer in mice. [33] In this study, the methanol extract is more cytotoxic compared to the ethanol extract. The yields of an extract of F. asafoetida resin using ethanol (516.1 g) and methanol (558.6 g) extractions were 0.752% and 2.390% w/w, respectively.…”

“…Many studies stated about tumor reducing activity of Asafoetida using oral administration of the extracts in mice by intraperitoneal transplantation in Ehrlich ascites tumor. [31] The cytotoxicity may be due to the high contents of essential oils in F. asafoetida which are toxic for biological systems [29,32,33] [34] The sesquiterpene prenylated coumarin derivative ferulenol of Asafoetida, which cause toxicity to the plant and responsible for antibacterial properties as well as cytotoxicity toward human tumor cell lines. The most of the sesquiterpene coumarins were stored in the root part [35] which may be deliberated as potential biological compounds for the treatment of malignancies.…”

Hemisynthesis, Antitumoral Effect, and Molecular Docking Studies of Ferutinin and Its Analogues

“…The antiproliferative effect of ferutinin was previously reported on both estrogen-dependent (14,15) and estrogen-independent cell lines (15)(16)(17). An interesting biphasic effect was observed on the proliferation of estrogen-dependent breast cancer cell line MCF-7, when treated with increasing concentrations of ferutinin.…”

Studies of the in vitro cytotoxic, antioxidant, lipase inhibitory and antimicrobial activities of selected Thai medicinal plants

“…According to the United States National Cancer Institute plant screening program, a plant extract is generally considered to have an active cytotoxicity effect if the IC 50 value following incubation between 48 to 72 h, is 20 μg/mL or less [23]. …”