Geyid Aberra, Abebe Dawit, Debella Asfaw, Makonnen Zewdneh, Aberra Frehiwot, Teka Frehiwot, Kebede Tesfaye, Urga Kelbessa, Yersaw Kidist, Biza Teklele, Mariam Bisrat Haile, Guta Mulugeta
Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute, P.O. Box 1242/5654, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2005 Mar 21;97(3):421-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2004.08.021.
In the indigenous health care delivery system of Ethiopia, numerous plant species are used to treat diseases of infectious origin. Regardless of the number of species, if any of such claims could be verified scientifically, the potential significance for the improvement of the health care services would be substantial. The objective of this study was, therefore, to determine the presence of anti-microbial activity in the crude extracts of some of the commonly used medicinal plants as well as to identify the class of compounds in the plants that were subjected to such screening. Thus, the crude methanol, petroleum ether and aqueous extracts of 67 plant species were subjected to preliminary screening against 10 strains of bacterial species and 6 fungal strains using the agar dilution method. A sample concentration of 250-2000 microg/ml and 500-4000 microg/ml were used for the bacterial and fungal pathogens, respectively. The results indicated that 44 different plant species exhibited activity against one or more of the bacteria while one species, viz., Albizzia gummifera showed activity against all the 10 bacteria at different gradient of dilution. Twenty three species inhibited or retarded growth of one or more organisms at dilution as low as 250 microg/ml. Extracts of same plants species were also tested against six different fungal pathogenic agents of which eight species showed growth inhibition against one or more of the organisms. Trichila emetica and Dovyalis abyssinica, which inhibited growth of four and five fungal strains at 100 microg/ml concentration, respectively, were the most promising plants. Chemical screening conducted on the extracts of all the plants showed the presence of several secondary metabolites, mainly, polyphenols, alkaloids, tannins sterols/terpenes, saponins and glycosides. The plants containing more of these metabolites demonstrated stronger anti-microbial properties stressing the need for further investigations using fractionated extracts and purified chemical components.
在埃塞俄比亚的本土医疗保健系统中，许多植物物种被用于治疗传染性疾病。无论物种数量多少，如果此类说法中的任何一种能够得到科学验证，那么对改善医疗保健服务的潜在意义将是巨大的。因此，本研究的目的是确定一些常用药用植物粗提物中是否存在抗菌活性，并鉴定接受此类筛选的植物中的化合物类别。于是，采用琼脂稀释法，对67种植物的粗甲醇提取物、石油醚提取物和水提取物针对10种细菌菌株和6种真菌菌株进行了初步筛选。细菌病原体和真菌病原体的样品浓度分别为250 - 2000微克/毫升和500 - 4000微克/毫升。结果表明，44种不同的植物物种对一种或多种细菌表现出活性，而一种植物，即阿拉伯胶合欢，在不同稀释梯度下对所有10种细菌都表现出活性。23种植物在低至250微克/毫升的稀释度下抑制或延缓了一种或多种生物体的生长。还对同一植物物种的提取物针对6种不同的真菌病原体进行了测试，其中8种植物对一种或多种生物体表现出生长抑制作用。分别在100微克/毫升浓度下抑制4种和5种真菌菌株生长的埃米蒂卡鹧鸪花和阿比西尼亚刺黄果是最有前景的植物。对所有植物提取物进行的化学筛选表明存在几种次生代谢产物，主要是多酚、生物碱、单宁、甾醇/萜类、皂苷和糖苷。含有更多这些代谢产物的植物表现出更强的抗菌特性，强调需要使用分级提取物和纯化化学成分进行进一步研究。
