Among other properties, flavonoids present a notable bacteriostatic activity. In this paper, minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of 5,7,4'-trihydroxyflavanone (naringenin), 5,7-dihydroxyflavone and 2',4',4- trihydroxychalcone (isoliquitirigenin) against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25 923 were determined and compared to values obtained for other chalcones and flavanones previously investigated. Specific growth rates and MICs were determined by a turbidimetric kinetic method. The observed sequence MICflavanone (inactive) >MIC7-hidroxyflavanone (197.6 µgml-1)>MIC5,7,4'-trihydroxyflavanone (120 µgml-1) showed that the introduction of an electron donating group (-OH) causes an increase in bioactivity. On the other hand, the comparisons MIC5,7,4'-trihydroxyflavanone (120 µgml-1) >>> MIC2',4',4-trihydroxychalcone (29 µgml-1) and MIC5,7-dihydroxyflavone (105 µgml-1) >>> MIC2',4'-dihydroxychalcone (28.8 µgml-1) indicated that the chalcone structure is the most favourable for bacteriostatic activity within the flavonoid family.
flavanone; flavone; chalcone; bacteriostatic activity
