Antibacterial activity of Crude Momordica charantia, Cassia alata, and Allium sativum methanolic extracts on Leptospira interrogans serovar Manilae

Background and Objective@#Leptospirosis is a disease caused by pathogenic Leptospira prevalent in tropical countries like the Philippines. Some studies have shown that the role of currently used antibiotics for leptospirosis is unclear since trials have found no significant benefit to patient outcomes compared to placebo. This signals the need for alternative therapies, such as herbal medicines, which may provide effective therapeutic regimens in treating this infection. In this study, we characterized the antibacterial potential of three Philippine herbal medicines against Leptospira interrogans. @*Methods@#Crude methanolic extracts of Momordica charantia, Cassia alata, and Allium sativum were subjected to an optimized broth microdilution assay against L. interrogans, utilizing the resazurin-resorufin reaction as a cell proliferation and viability indicator. @*Results@#The respective minimum inhibitory concentrations of the plants were found to be as follows: 1.25 mg/mL (M. charantia), 2.5 mg/mL (C. alata), and >5 mg/mL (A. sativum). @*Conclusions@#Among the three herbal medicines, M. charantia and C. alata proved to have antibacterial activity against L. interrogans. Given the promising potential of two of these plant extracts, exploring the use of other solvents to extract natural compounds from these plants, and discovering possible synergistic effects between these plants and conventional antibiotics may be worthwhile.

Efficacy of Tithonia diversifolia and Momordica charantia Leaves Extracts against Malaria Vector, Anopheles gambiae Gile (Diptera: Culicidae)

The gastrointestinal tracts were cut open and the contents of the various sections were put into separate Petri dishes containing normal saline. The skin and the bladder were observed directly under a dissecting microscope for the presence of cysts and monogeneans. The parasites were fixed and preserved in 70% alcohol following standard procedure. Parasites recovered from the gastrointestinal tracts of the anurans include Cosmocerca ornata, Deising, 1861,Cosmocerca cummutata, Diesing, 1851 Paracosmocerca mucronata, Kung and Wu, 1945, Ampliceacum africanum, Taylor, 1924, Gendria liberrei Bain and Philipon, 1969 and Chenospirura asturiHsu, 1957Others were Procamallus brevis Kung, 1948 and Camallanus dimitrovi Durette-Desset and Batcharov, 1974. Some of the parasites are zoonotic while a few others are established parasites of African fishes and water Birds raising probable public health concerns from the findings. Further works aimed at unravelling the biodiversity of hosts and parasites in thelush ecosystem of Ondo state, as well as identification of organisms involved in the life cycle are noted. Methodology: Larvae and pupae of Anopheles gambiaewere reared inthe laboratory at ambient temperature of 28±2°Cand relative humidity of 75±5%. The leave extracts of T. diversifolia and M. charantia were extracted with methanol and were prepared at concentrations, 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3%, 0.4% and 0.5%. The larvae and pupae of A. gambiae were exposed to these concentrations of the plant extract for 24 hours. Mortality of the larvae and pupae was monitored and recorded. Probit analysis was used to determine the LC50. Results: Date of this research revealed that at all levels of concentrations, mortality of both the larvae and pupae of this insect increased with increase in the concentrations regardless the type of plant extract used. The leave extract of T. diversifoliahavinga lower value of LC50(larvae: 0.20%; Pupae: 0.27%) was more potent than extract from M. charantiahaving a higher value of LC50(larvae: 0.31%; Pupae: 0.44%) after 24 hours Post Treatment of larvae and pupae of A. gambiae. T. diversifoliahad significanteffect on the larvae of A. gambiaewith percentage mortality ranges from 23.33-100% within 24hrs of exposure when compared with M. charantiathat had 16.67-100% of mortality larvae of A. gambiae.Conclusion: The obtained results from this research revealed that extracts from the two plants exhibited great insecticidal properties against larvae and pupae of A. gambiae. Therefore, more exploration on the use of these plants for the development of insecticides at commercial level should be done