Antimicrobial activity of medicinal plants used for urinary tract infections in pastoralist community in Ethiopia

Abstract

Background Medicinal plants have wide medicament application used to prevent and management of many ailments. These plants are used for primary health care in pastoralist communities who are deprived of modern medical care. They possess extensive therapeutics bioactive coupled with varied chemical structures. However, scientific validation of efficacy and safety of plants used to treat the urinary tract infections haven’t been fully exploited. The aim of this study was to evaluate antimicrobial activity and screening phytochemicals of medicinal plants used to treat urinary tract infections. Methods In-vitro experimental study was carried out to evaluate the antimicrobial effect and screening phytochemical of Rumex abyssinicus, Cucumis pustulatus, Discopodium penninervium, Lippia adoensis, Euphorbia depauperata, and Cirsium englerianum. Against drug resistance microbes. 80% methanol was used for extraction of the plant parts. The susceptibility tests were investigated using disc diffusion and broth micro-dilution methods. Results The majority of tested extracts showed antimicrobial activity on two or more drug-resistant bacteria with MIC value (1.0–128.0 μg/ml) and 9–27 mm inhibition zone in diameter. Extracts obtained from C.englerianum and E. depauperate showed more potent antibacterial activity on MRSA and Enterococcus faecalis with IZ 25 and 27 mm respectively. E. coli and K. pneumoniae were inhibited by those extracts with IZ ranging 9–25 mm and 11–27 mm respectively. E.faecalis and K. pneumoniae were more susceptible bacteria to the respective extracts. R. abyssinicus showed promising antifungal effect with had 21 mm IZ and MIC range 16-32 μg/ml on C.albicans. Alkaloids, flavonoids, phenolic and terpenoid were common phytochemical characterized in majority of screened plants. Conclusion Tested extracts exhibited significant antibacterial and antifungal activity. Hence, further structural elucidation of bioactive that inhibited the growth of microbes aforementioned plants may be used as precursors for the synthesis of new antibiotics in the future.

Novel Insights on Plant Extracts to Prevent and Treat Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections

“…-The assay of adhesion carried out at the MIC showed a reduction of up to 80% of the adhesion index accompanied with reductions in motility and polyamide production. [36] seed extract tannins, steroids, terpenes, coumarins, flavonoids, andglycosides uropathogens E. coli, Enterococcus faecalis, S. aureus, and K. pneumonia -This study showed urobactericidal activity against different strains that were clinically isolated from patients suffering from urinary tract infections.…”

“…The antimicrobial effects of plant extracts are attributed to multiple mechanisms: directly killing microbes, interfering with microbial adhesion to epithelial cells and biofilm formation, stopping the multiplication of pathogens, restoring dysbiosis, improving the host protection acting on natural barriers, serving as immunomodulators, or boosting body oxidant status [35]. Therefore, using whole plant extracts is recommended, as the biologically active compounds work synergistically and have different mechanisms of action [36]. In the last years, some reports have enlisted botanicals helpful in preventing and curing UTI and made synopses with the therapeutical potential of medicinal plants for the management of UTI [1][2][3][4][5][6][36][37][38][39].…”

“…Therefore, using whole plant extracts is recommended, as the biologically active compounds work synergistically and have different mechanisms of action [36]. In the last years, some reports have enlisted botanicals helpful in preventing and curing UTI and made synopses with the therapeutical potential of medicinal plants for the management of UTI [1][2][3][4][5][6][36][37][38][39].…”

“…Other varieties, including V. oxycoccos, a small/bog cranberry, and V. erythrocarpum, a southern mountain cranberry, have also been used to treat UTI because these berries contain many biologically active compounds that are supposed to be responsible for anti-uropathogenic activities [42]. Cranberries contain fructose and A-type proanthocyanidins that have been found to prevent the adhesion of E. coli to uroepithelial cells, and prolonged exposure to cranberry induced a change in the morphology of E. coli to the spherical shape that affects adherence [36,43]. Ursolic acid inhibits E. coli biofilm formation, and quinic acid is responsible for the excretion of hippuric acid and acidifies the urine.…”

Antibacterial Activity of Aqueous and Ethanol Fruit Extracts of Cucumis ‎sativus Linn. Against Selected Microorganisms at the University of ‎Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, Maiduguri

“…The ability of the extracts to inhibit the growth of these organisms in-vitro may be due to the presence of flavonoids which are in both aqueous and ethanol extracts. Flavonoids, terpenoids and cardiac glycoside are known to have antibacterial activities and curative properties against bacterial pathogen (Atanasov et al, 2015;Gadisa et al, 2019;Gadisa and Tadesse, 2021). The plant studied here can be seen as a potential source of useful antimicrobial drugs.…”