Volume 4, Issue 2, June 2014, Pages 96–105
Original Research Article
Comparative antimicrobial activity of South East Asian plants used in Bornean folkloric medicine
Abstract
Experimental
assays were carried out to validate traditional claims about medicinal
plants collected by the Traditional Knowledge Documentation Program at
the Sarawak Biodiversity Centre on the island of Borneo. The majority of
the medicinal plants are utilised as traditional therapies for various
diseases, including diarrhoea, food poisoning, vaginomycosis, sexually
transmitted infections (gonorrhoea) and furunculosis.
Six
medicinal plants used as indigenous herbal medicines were individually
screened for antimicrobial and antifungal effects using their crude
extracts and were found to inhibit a broad range of pathogenic
microorganisms. Plant extracts derived from Fibraurea tinctoria, Polyalthia hookeriana, Pyrenaria sp., Baccaurea lanceolata, Goniothalamus tapisoides and Goniothalamus velutinus were demonstrated to have the highest antimicrobial activities. Pyrenaria sp. showed significant antifungal activity against Candida albicans
with minimum inhibitory and minimum fungicidal concentrations of
25 μg/mL and 50 μg/mL, respectively. The evidence in this study has
highlighted the effectiveness of using the traditional knowledge
approach to screen for antimicrobial and antifungal activity in plants
to evaluate their potential as herbal remedies for human and animal
protection against pathogens.
Keywords
- Traditional medicine;
- Anti-pathogenic effect;
- Disc diffusion assay;
- Minimum inhibitory concentration;
- Minimum bactericidal concentration
- Corresponding
author at: Faculty of Life and Social Sciences, Swinburne University of
Technology, P.O. Box 218, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia. Tel.:
+61 3 9214 4880; fax: +61 3 9819 0834.
Copyright © 2014 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
