Hydroalcoholic Extract of Myrcia bella Loaded into a Microemulsion System: A Study of Antifungal and Mutagenic Potential

Abstract

Myrcia bella is a medicinal plant used for the treatment of diabetes, hemorrhages, and hypertension in Brazilian folk medicine. Considering that plant extracts are attractive sources of new drugs, the aim of the present study was to verify the influence of incorporating 70% hydroalcoholic of M. bella leaves in nanostructured lipid systems on the mutagenic and antifungal activities of the extract. In this work, we evaluated the antifungal potential of M. bella loaded on the microemulsion against Candida sp for minimum inhibitory concentration, using the microdilution technique. The system was composed of polyoxyethylene 20 cetyl ether and soybean phosphatidylcholine (10%), grape seed oil, cholesterol (10%: proportion 5/1), and purified water (80%). To investigate the mutagenic activity, the Ames test was used with the Salmonella Typhimurium tester strains. M. bella, either incorporated or free, showed an important antifungal effect against all tested strains. Moreover, the incorporation surprisingly inhibited the mutagenicity presented by the extract. The present study attests the antimicrobial properties of M. bella extract, contributing to the search for new natural products with biological activities and suggesting caution in its use for medicinal purposes. In addition, the results emphasize the importance of the use of nanotechnology associated with natural products as a strategy for the control of infections caused mainly by the genus Candida sp.

Lycopene, Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles and Their Association: A Possible Alternative against Vulvovaginal Candidiasis?

“…After incubation of the 96-well microplates used in the MIC assay, the MFC determination was performed. With the aid of sterile wooden sticks, the mixture from each well (which showed antifungal activity) was transferred to Sabouraud Dextrose Agar plates, which were incubated at 37 °C for 48 h. MFC was defined as the minimum concentration necessary for the absence of colony forming units formation [ 76 ].…”

Natural product‐based nanomedicine applied to fungal infection treatment: A review of the last 4 years

“…Side effects are described in the literature, suggesting care in the improper use of herbal medicines (Izzo et al 2016). For example, Myrcia bella has been reported to have high mutagenic potential (Marena et al, 2020).…”

“…The combination of limiting factors in antifungal therapy and the increase in immunocompromised patients has exacerbated treatment difficulties and created the need for new, more effective, and safer therapies (Mlynarczyk et al, 2021) (Chaudhary et al 2014;Marena, et al, 2020;Sharma et al 2016).…”

“…The polydispersity index may vary between 0.1 and 0.5, indicating the homogeneity/ uniformity of the formulations. The ZP, on the other hand, indicates the electronegativity or electropositivity of the particles responsible for the stability of the system (Lima et al, 2020;Lima et al, 2020;Marena et al, 2020;Ramos et al, 2020).…”

“…As MEs do not require energy for their development, they need a greater number of surfactants in comparison with NEs (McClements, 2012). The higher the percentage of surfactants, the greater the lamellar phase of the formulations (Figure2)(Gagandeep et al 2014;Marena et al, 2020;…”