Antimicrobial survey of local herbal drugs against acinetobacter baumannii Isolated from patients admitted to a level-I trauma center

Objective: To determine the antimicrobial activity and entity of several local herbal plants against Acintobacters isolated from trauma patients admitted to a Level-I trauma center

Methods: The antibacterial activities of the Satureja bachtiarica oil and some selected Iranian medicinal plants [Artemisia sieberi and Tanacetum dumosum belonging to the Asteraceae/Compositae; Salvia mirzayanii and Mentha mozaffarianii belonging to the Lamiaceae/Labiatae] were assayed on A. baumannii by microdilution and agar disc diffusion methods. Having obtained the acceptable antibacterial data, the shade-dried aerial parts of the plants were extracted by hydrodistillation method using Clevenger apparatus according to European pharmacopeia for 3 h. The analysis of S. bachtiarica essential oil accompanied by other herbal drug oils were performed by using GC/FID and GC/MS methods

Results: Outcomes revealed that the S. bachtiarica essential oil exhibited the potent antibacterial capability against Acinetobacter strains in comparison with Colistin, as a positive control. For S. bachtiarica, the growth inhibition zone and minimum inhibitory concentration [MIC] values were 21 mm and 0.5 mg/ml, while, for Colistin, the data were in order: 8 mm and 0.016 mg/ml. Consequently, GC/MS outcomes demonstrated that the major components of the essence were carvacrol [48.6%], followed by p-Cymene [16.6%], ã-terpinene [6.9%] and linalool [5.3%]

Conclusion: Based on the considerable inhibitory activity against nosocomial infections by essential oil of S. bachtiarica, it could be considered as the suitable candidate in the food industry and pharmaceutical uses

Phytochemical investigation on Euphorbia macrostegia [Persian wood spurge]

Euphorbia macrostegia or Persian wood spurge is one of the seventeen endemic plants of this genus in Iran. Three triterpenoids, 24-methylenecycloartan-3 beta -ol [1], butyrospermol [2] and cycloartenol [3] and three diglycerides, 1,2-di-O- alpha -linolenoyl-sn-glycerol [4], 1-O-linoleoyl-3- O-palmitoyl-sn-glycerol [5] and 1-O- alpha -linolenoyl-2-O-palmitoyl-sn-glycerol [6] were isolated from the hexane soluble part of methanol-dichloromethane extracts of the aerial parts of Euphorbia macrostegia Boiss. The structures of all compounds were elucidated using different spectroscopy methods including, [1]H NMR, [13]C NMR, HSQC, HMBC, EI-MS and IR. The triterpenes and the unsaturated fatty acids moieties of the diglycerides isolated from the plant were reported previously to have analgesic, anticancer, bactericidal and antifungal activity. Here, we show that E. macrostegia is a new source for the above mentioned biologically active compounds

Cytotoxic, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities and phenolic contents of eleven salvia species from Iran

The plants of the genus Salvia synthesize several types of secondary metabolites with antimicrobial, cytotoxic, and radical scavenging activities and are used in the folk medicine of different countries. Eleven Salvia species including S. aegyptiaca, S. aethiopis, S. atropatana, S. eremophila, S. hypoleuca, S. limbata, S. nemorosa, S. santolinifolia, S. sclarea, S. syriaca, and S. xanthocheila were collected from different localities in Iran and screened for their cytotoxic activity using 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide [MTT] colorimetric assay. The antioxidant potential and total phenol contents of the plant extracts were assessed by 2,2-diphenyl-l-picrylhydrazyl [DPPH] radical scavenging assay and Folin-Ciocalteu reagent respectively and finally antimicrobial activity of the above extracts were determined by using agar disc diffusion [ADD] and nutrient broth micro-dilution [NBMD] bioassays. Cytotoxic activity of methanol, 80% methanol and dichloromethane extracts of these plants were assessed on 3 human cancer cell lines. All of the extracts of S. eremophila and S. santolinifolia were active at IC[50] values of 10.5-75.2 microg extract/mL, while the methanol and dichloromethane extracts of S. limbata, S. hypoleuca and S. aethiopis showed considerable cytotoxic activity against the tested cell lines. Among the tested plants for their antioxidant activity, S. nemorosa, S. atropatana, S. santolinifolia, and S. eremophila were the most active radical scavengers with higher total phenol contents while, S. limbata, S. xanthocheila and S. aegyptiaca were the weakest ones. The methanol extracts of S. santolinifolia, S. eremophila, S. sclarea and S. limbata inhibited the growth of all tested bacterial strains