Numbi Wa Ilunga Evodie, Mbayo Kitambala Marsi, Muya Kalunga, Lachenaud Olivier, Mukekwa Maloba Joachim, Lumbu Simbi Jean-Baptiste, Fontaine Véronique
Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Lubumbashi (UNILU), Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Unit of Microbiology, Bioorganic and Macromolecular Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium.
Trop Med Health. 2025 May 3;53(1):64. doi: 10.1186/s41182-025-00745-1.
Tuberculosis is still a serious threat to public health in Africa and especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is one of the eight countries with approximately two-thirds of the global cases of tuberculosis. Given the difficulties in accessing health care services and antitubercular treatments, indigenous population also uses plant-based traditional medicine. This study aimed to identify plants with antituberculosis potential in traditional Katangese medicine.
Interviews were conducted on traditional healers using snowball sampling method. Ethnobotanical data were assessed by determination of the informant consensus factor and the relative frequency of citation. Guided field walks allowed to collect plants. Methanolic extracts were tested on Mycobacterium smegmatis and Mycobacterium bovis BCG using microdilution, diffusion and agar proportion methods. The cytotoxicity of the best extracts was evaluated by cell viability assay on the human cervical squamous carcinoma SiHa cell line. The 50% inhibitory concentration and minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) were used to determine the selectivity index.
Thirty-eight plant species from 23 families were identified, most of which were from Fabaceae (16%). Eleven out of 17 plant extracts inhibited the growth of M. smegmatis at MIC ranging from 13 to 250 μg/mL. The methanolic extracts of Zanthoxylum chalybeum and Parinari curatellifolia showed MIC of 62.5 and 62.5-125 μg/mL, respectively, on M. bovis BCG and showed IC values of 28 and 20 μg/mL, respectively suggesting a low selectivity index. This study was the first to investigate the antimycobacterial activity of Terminalia mollis, Phyllanthus muellerianus, Ochna afzelii, and Rothmannia engleriana.
The demonstration of antimycobacterial activity in the plants used in Lubumbashi against tuberculosis opens opportunities for more in-depth research into their chemical composition and toxicity, ultimately aiming to enhance their safety for treatment of tuberculosis.
结核病仍然严重威胁着非洲的公共卫生，尤其是在刚果民主共和国，该国是全球约三分之二结核病病例所在的八个国家之一。鉴于获得医疗服务和抗结核治疗存在困难，当地居民也使用植物类传统药物。本研究旨在确定加丹加传统医学中具有抗结核潜力的植物。
采用滚雪球抽样法对传统治疗师进行访谈。通过确定信息提供者共识因子和相对引用频率来评估民族植物学数据。在实地考察的引导下采集植物。使用微量稀释法、扩散法和琼脂比例法对甲醇提取物进行耻垢分枝杆菌和牛分枝杆菌卡介苗测试。通过对人宫颈鳞状癌细胞系SiHa进行细胞活力测定来评估最佳提取物的细胞毒性。使用50%抑制浓度和最小抑菌浓度（MIC）来确定选择性指数。
鉴定出23个科的38种植物，其中大部分来自豆科（16%）。17种植物提取物中有11种在13至250μg/mL的MIC范围内抑制了耻垢分枝杆菌的生长。花椒和柯拉奇楠的甲醇提取物对牛分枝杆菌卡介苗的MIC分别为62.5和62.5-125μg/mL，其IC值分别为28和20μg/mL，表明选择性指数较低。本研究首次调查了软毛榄仁、穆勒叶下珠、非洲金莲木和恩氏罗氏木的抗分枝杆菌活性。
在卢本巴希用于治疗结核病的植物中证明其抗分枝杆菌活性，为更深入研究其化学成分和毒性提供了机会，最终目标是提高其治疗结核病的安全性。
