Antimicrobial activity and phytochemical profile from the roots of Lippia alba (Mill.) N.E. Brown

Atividade antimicrobiana e perfil fitoquímico das raízes de Lippia alba (Mill.) N.E. Brown

ARTIGO

Antimicrobial activity and phytochemical profile from the roots of Lippia alba (Mill.) N.E. Brown

Atividade antimicrobiana e perfil fitoquímico das raízes de Lippia alba (Mill.) N.E. Brown

Jose G. Sena Filho^I,*; Janaina G.S. Melo^I; Antônio M. Saraiva^II; Ademário M. Gonçalves^II; Maria Nelly Caetano Psiottano^II; Haroudo S. Xavier^I

^ILaboratório de Farmacognosia, Departamento de Ciências Farmacêuticas, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, 50740-521, Recife, PE, Brazil

^IILaboratório de Análises Microbiológicas, Departamento de Ciências Farmacêuticas, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, 50740-52,1 Recife, PE, Brazil

ABSTRACT

Lippia alba (Mill.) N.E. Brown (Verbenaceae) is commonly used in the Brazilian folk medicine to the treatment of gastric illnesses, diarrhea, fever, asthma, and as a tranquilizer. This work evaluated the antimicrobial activity of ethyl acetate, methanol and aqueous extracts from the roots of the L. alba using plates-holes diffusion assay and the phytochemical profile. The results obtained showed that the ethyl acetate and methanol extracts presented antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538P), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538) and Klebsiella pneumonia (ATCC 10031). Terpenoids, phenylpropanoids and sugars were detected in the phytochemical analysis.

Keywords: Lippia alba, Verbenaceae, antimicrobial activity, phytochemical analysis.

RESUMO

Lippia alba (Mill.) N.E. Brown (Verbenaceae) é geralmente usada na medicina popular brasileira para o tratamento de doenças gástricas, febre, asma e como tranqüilizante. Este trabalho avaliou a atividade antimicrobiana dos extratos acetato de etila, metanol e aquoso das raízes de L. alba usando métodos de difusão em poços e o perfil fitoquímico. Os resultados obtidos mostraram que os extratos acetato de etila e metanol apresentaram atividade antimicrobiana contra Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538P), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538) e Klebsiella pneumonia (ATCC 10031). Terpenóides, fenilpropanóides e açúcares foram detectados na análise fitoquímica.

Unitermos:Lippia alba, Verbenaceae, atividade antimicrobiana, análise fitoquímica.

INTRODUCTION

Long before mankind discovered the existence of microbes, the idea that certain plants had healing potential, indeed, that they contained what we would currently characterize as antimicrobial principles, was well accepted. Since antiquity, man has used plants to treat common infectious diseases and some of these traditional medicine are still included as part of the habitual treatment of various maladies (Heinrich et al., 2004; Ríos et al., 2005).

Lippia alba (Mill.) N.E. Brown, also known as Lippia geminata HBK or Lantana alba (Mill), is a shrub about 3 m tall that belongs to the Verbenaceae family (Stashenko et al., 2003). In the Brazilian traditional medicine it’s vulgarly known as erva-cidreira, chá-do-tabuleiro and salsa Limão (Braga, 1976; Matos, 1996). Its leaves are employed as infusion or decoction to the treatment of gastric illnesses, diarrhea, fever, asthma, cough and tranquillizing remedy (Matos, 1996; Tavares et al., 2005; Morais et al., 2005). Large variations have been observed in the composition of L. alba essential oil, depending on the part of the plant employed in the distillation, on the plant’s state of development and on the geographic location, the characteristics of the soil, climate, and others local conditions (Alea et al., 1997; Stashenko et al., 2003; Tavares et al., 2005). GC analyses of essential oil from three chemotypes of L. alba revealed the predominance of monoterpene type compounds such as citral (55.1%), b-myrcene (10.5%), and limonene (1.5%) (Matos, 1996; Julião et al., 2003). Few pharmacological studies have been done on the genus Lippia. Among these, the studies on the species Lippia multiflora, Lippia origanoides, Lippia sidoides, L. integrifolia, Lippia lacunosa, Lippia rotundifolia and Lippia alba (Pascual et al., 2001, Fauth et al., 2002; Oliveira et al., 2006; Leitão et al., 2006; Barbosa-Filho et al., 2006) are included. The essential oil of Lippia alba showed antimicrobial activity against gram positive microorganisms, in general, with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) between 0.31-0.63 mg/mL (Alea et al., 1997).

Despite the popular use of L. alba as a medicinal plant, there are no data about the antimicrobial effect and phytochemical profile from the roots of this vegetal specimen. Thus, the interest of this plant is justifiable because of its potential medicinal value.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Microorganisms

Seven microbial species taken from international collections were analyzed: Encherichia coli (ATCC 9723), Klebsiella pneumonia (ATCC 10031), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538P), Enterococcus faecalis (ATCC 33186), Salmonela sp (ATCC 8387) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC14502).

Plant material

The vegetal specimens was collected in Timbaúba (7º35’S; 35º22’W), State of Pernambuco, Brazil in January 2005. The plant was identified by Prof. Dr. Haroudo Sátiro Xavier. A voucher specimen was deposited under nº 1011 at the Pharmacognosy Herbarium of the Federal University of Pernambuco State -Brazil.

Crude extract preparation

The air dried and powdered roots (62.76 g) of Lippia alba (Mill) N.E. Brown were extracted separately and exhaustively with increase polarity of ethyl acetate (EEA), methanol (EME) and distillated water (EAQ) successively at room temperature (48 h for each solvent). Solvents were evaporated at 50 ºC under reduced pressure affording the extracts coded as hexane extract (HE) 1.6%, ethyl acetate extract (EAc) 1.44%, methanol extract (MeE) 2.24% and water extract (WE) 3.22%.

Phytochemical profile

The chromatographic analyses were made by TLC on Si gel (MERCK-Germany, 105553) developed by different solvent systems: EtOAc–HCOOH–AcOH–H₂O (100 : 11 : 11 : 26, v:v), EtOAc–HCOOH–AcOH–H₂O (100 : 0.5 : 0.5 : 0.5, v:v ), Et₂O-toluene-AcOH 10 % (50 : 50 : 50, v:v ). Toluene–AcOEt (97 : 3 v/v), n-BuOH-Me₂CO-Buffer Phosphate pH = 5.0 (40 : 50 : 10 v/v)

It was verified the presence or absence of terpenoids, steroids , saponins, sugars, flavonoids, phenylpropanoids, alkaloids, coumarins, condensed proanthocyanidins, leucoanthocyanidins and quinones (See Table 3).

Plate-hole diffusion assay

The microorganism cultures were grown in Müller Hinton agar at 37 ºC. After 18 h of growth, each microorganism culture, were dissolved in NaCl 0.9% solution sterile until a concentration of 0.5 at MacFarland scale, was inoculated on the surface of Müller Hinton (MH) agar plates (100 µL). The methodology used was the plate-holes diffusion assay (Ieven et al, 1979; Caetano et al., 2002). The plates were incubated at 37 ºC for 24 h; after this period, the zones of growth inhibition around the discs and the holes were measured.

Tetracycline was the positive control (1 mg/mL). All determinations were made in duplicate.

Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC)

The concentrations of 0.031, 0.062, 0.125, 0.25, 0.5, 1 and 2 mg/mL by the EAA and EME were tested against the microorganisms: Klebsiella pneumonia (ATCC 10031), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538P).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A total of 7 microorganisms were tested and the results are summarized in Table 1, following by the Minimum inhibitory concentration in Table 2. The EAQ extract of L. alba did not show any activity.

As can be observed in Table 1, the EEA and EME possessed the antimicrobial activity against some microorganism tested. In the assays against microorganisms by plates-holes diffusion method, the zones obtained were between 11 to 13 mm.

The EEA and EME extracts of L. alba were activity against Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538P), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538) and Klebsiella pneumonia (ATCC 10031).

The MIC values obtained were ranged between 0.5 - 2 mg/mL (Table 2). The best results were observed for the EEA extract against Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538).

The phytochemical profile from the roots of L. alba detected the presence of terpenoids, phenylpropanoids, and sugars. On the other hand, It wasn’t verified the presence of coumarins, condensed proanthocyanidins, leucoanthocyanidins, saponins, flavonoids, alkaloids, steroids and quinones.

Received 02/20/06. Accepted 07/24/06

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  17 May 2007
• Date of issue
  Dec 2006

History

• Accepted
  24 July 2006
• Received
  20 Feb 2006