title: Search for antibacterial agents from Malaysian rainforest and tropical plants.
abstract: The world's rainforests hold untold potential for drug discovery. Rainforest plants are thought to contain evolved defensive active metabolites of greater diversity compared to plants from temperate regions. In recent years, the interest and overall output from pharmaceutical companies on novel antibacterial agents has diminished at a time when there is a critical need for them to fight the threat of resistance. In this study, we have investigated the antimicrobial properties of 21 flowering plants from 16 different families against six bacterial strains consisting of two Gram negative and four Gram positive. Using the pour plate disc diffusion technique, almost all extracts from these plants were found to be active against some of the bacterial strains tested. The most interesting and active plants with broad spectrum activities include Duabanga grandiflora, Acalypha wilkesiana and Pseuduvaria macrophylla where the minimum inhibitory concentration, minimum bactericidal concentration and phytochemical analysis were carried out. This is the first report describing the antimicrobial and phytochemical properties of D. grandiflora and P. macrophylla. Our findings support the utilisation of higher plant species in the search for new antimicrobial molecules to combat new emerging infective diseases and the problem of drug resistant pathogens.
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus, Jalan Broga, 43500 Semenyih, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Mukhrizah
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Othman
authors.forename: Sivaneswary
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Genapathy
authors.forename: Pit Sze
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Liew
authors.forename: Qin Ting
authors.initials: QT
authors.lastname: Ch'ng
authors.forename: Hwei San
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Loh
authors.forename: Teng Jin
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Khoo
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wiart
authors.forename: Kang Nee
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: Ting
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects*; D052978:Disk Diffusion Antimicrobial Tests; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000379:methods*; D019684:Magnoliopsida / Q000737:chemistry*; D008296:Malaysia; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000494:pharmacology*; D014197:Trees; D014329:Tropical Climate
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D010936:Plant Extracts