Evaluation of Antimicrobial activity and Genotoxic Potential of Capparis spinosa (L.) Plant Extracts

Abstract

Objective: The aims of this study were to evaluate the antimicrobial activity and the genotoxic effect of both ethanolic and aqueous extracts of stem and leaf of Capparis spinosa (C. spinosa) plant on Escherichia coli (E. coli) ATCC 25922, Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) ATCC 6538P, clinical isolate of Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) and Candida albicans (C. albicans) ATCC 90028.
 Materials and Methods: The antimicrobial activity was determined using microbroth dilution method, while the genotoxic effect was investigated using randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)-PCR and enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC)-PCR.
 Results: The MIC values of both ethanolic and aqueous leaf and stem extracts of C. spinosa plant had a range 6.25 mg/ml to 100 mg/ml. In addition, it was found that ethanolic extract more effective than aqueous extract. The genotoxic activity of aqueous leaf extract, showed changes in both Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD)-PCR and Enterobacterial Repetitive Intergenic Consensus (ERIC)-PCR profiles of E. coli strain treated with extract compared to untreated (negative) control. These changes included an alteration in the intensity, absence or appearance of new amplified fragments.
 Conclusions: Results of this study strongly show the genotoxic effect of aqueous leaf extract from C. spinosa plant on E. coli. The findings draw awareness to the possible toxic effect use of C. spinosa plant in traditional medicine and point out the capability of using C. spinosa to treat bacterial or fungal infections. More studies are needed to detect the exact ingredients of this plant as well as the mechanisms responsible for genotoxicity. Further in vivo genotoxicity studies are recommended to ensure and to evaluate the safety of using plants for therapeutic purposes. In addition, results of this study showed that molecular fingerprinting based on ERIC-PCR can be used to evaluate the genotoxic effect in the model bacterial species E. coli.

Toxicity of Ulva lactuca and green fabricated silver nanoparticles against mosquito vectors and their impact on the genomic DNA of the dengue vector Aedes aegypti

“…In any case, the DNA was damaged by the treatment concentrations in the larvae. Similar study made on microbes from the extract of Capparis spinosa showed a genotoxic effect which was confirmed through RAPD-PCR [33].…”

Caper (Capparis spinosa L.): An Updated Review on Its Phytochemistry, Nutritional Value, Traditional Uses, and Therapeutic Potential

“…None of the organs was most active than the others toward the tested microorganisms (Gull et al, 2015). Similar results were described by Adwan and Omar, (2021), stem and leaf ethanol extracts exhibited MIC of 6.25-100 mg/ mL against relatively identical bacterial strains (Gull et al, 2015;Mickymaray and Al Aboody, 2019;Adwan and Omar, 2021). Similarly, the ethanol fruit extract of Caper featured strong antibacterial activity with MIC of 1.73 mg/mL against Listeria monocytogenes and 6.25 mg/mL against E. coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.…”

“…The ethanol flower extract was not as strong as the fruit extract against the same microorganisms disclosing MIC ranging from 10-15 mg/mL (Ennacerie et al, 2017;Hameed et al, 2021). Caper extract also showed differential antibacterial activity against Pasteurella multocida, K. pneumonia, Acinetobacter baumannii, Enterobacter aerogenes, and Proteus mirabilis with DZI values of 24.9, 36, 21, 26 and 27 mm, respectively (Gull et al, 2015;Mickymaray and Al Aboody, 2019;Adwan and Omar, 2021). From other perspectives, the copper nanoparticles prepared from the aqueous extract from the fruits showed significant antibacterial activity with MIC of 5-10 mg/mL against S. aureus PTCC1112, B. cereus PTCC1556, E. coli PTCC1330, and K. pneumoniae PTCC1053 (Ebrahimi et al, 2017).…”

Antimicrobial Activity and Cytoxicity of Several Sumbawa Traditional Oils (Minyak Sumbawa) in Sumbawa Regency, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia

“…Bark and leaves of Kasokal showed less activity on the tested bacterial methanol extract but had moderate activity against B. cereus Frankland & Frankland, B. megaterium de Bary, Sarcina lutea (Schroeter) Cohn, E. coli, S. aureus, S. paratyphi, S. typhi (Schroter) Warren & Scott, S. boydii, S. dysenteriae (Shiga) Castellani & Chalmers, V. mimicus Davis, V. parahemolyticus (Fujino) Sakazaki, Iwanami, & Fukumi, S. cerevacae and C. albicans (Robin) Berkhout [42], conversely Rana et al [43] found strong activity against S. aureus and S. typhi with very low cytotoxicity. Kasene bark and fruit showed strong activity against S. aureus, Enterococcus faecalis (Andrewes & Horder) Schleifer & Kilpper-Bolz, E. coli, Proteus vulgaris Hauser and C. albicans and molecular modeling showed that almitic acid, pyrogalol and isopropylisothiocyanate are antimicrobial compounds [44] and demonstrated genotoxin potential against E. coli [45]. The antimicrobial activity of these plants needs to be analyzed when combined and rarely hot extracted as in the production of Minyak Sumbawa.…”