In vitro assessment of antimicrobial activity of aqueous and alcoholic extracts of moss Atrichum undulatum (Hedw.) P. Beauv.

Abstract

Bryophytes, the shade loving plants, have tremendous medicinal properties. The aqueous and alcoholic extracts of Atrichum undulatum (Hedw.) P. Beauv. were analysed for antimicrobial properties against the fungi Aspergillus fumigatus and Fusarium oxysporum and the bacteria Escherichia coli, Bacillus mycoides, Proteus mirabilis, Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella typhi. The study is an attempt to investigate the medicinal properties of Atrichum undulatum (Hedw.) P. Beauv. using disc-diffusion method. No inhibition was observed against A. fumigatus and P. mirabilis. For bacteria S. typhi and E. coli (20 and 15 mm), aqueous and alcoholic extracts of Atrichum showed significant inhibition. However, alcoholic extract was found remarkably effective against bacteria rather than aqueous extract.

Antioxidant and Antibacterial Properties of Extracts and Bioactive Compounds in Bryophytes

“…A wide number of studies have explored the in vitro antibacterial activity of various solvent extracts such as water, ethanol, methanol, chloroform, butanol [31,[56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64]. Differences in the activity depend on the type of extract used, the tested species, the extraction procedure, and the bacteria strain.…”

“…Several researches have focused on the efficacy of bryophyte extracts against S. aureus (Table 3). The vast majority of these studies have evidenced the antibacterial activity of several pure compounds against normal strains of S. aureus: bibenzyls [71,72,81,82]; sesquiterpenoids [75]; extracts [56,58,61,83,84]. Agar disk diffusion against S. aureus of several sesquiterpenoids isolated from Mastigophora diclados methanolic extracts results in a zone of inhibition ranging from 13 to 17 mm.…”

“…Each year, CRE E. coli and K. pneumoniae caused approximately 600 deaths [18]. Several studies have demonstrated the efficacy of bryophytes extracts against non-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae [62,87,90], and extracts [61,91,92] and flavonoids against non-resistant E. coli [74]. Water, pure ethanol and water:ethanol extract were found to be effective against E. coli (MIC from 1.57 µg/mL to 3.91 µg/mL) [61,91].…”

“…Several studies have demonstrated the efficacy of bryophytes extracts against non-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae [62,87,90], and extracts [61,91,92] and flavonoids against non-resistant E. coli [74]. Water, pure ethanol and water:ethanol extract were found to be effective against E. coli (MIC from 1.57 µg/mL to 3.91 µg/mL) [61,91]. On the other hand, flavonoids isolated by [74] showed weaker activity (64 µg/mL to 128 µg/mL) (Table 2).…”

Liverworts and Mosses from Romania with Medicinal Potential

“…with various bioactivities, including the antibacterial, antitumor, antifungal and insecticidal ones (Glime, 2007). Some researchers have also described their myorelaxant effects on the smooth muscles of the organs in the abdominal cavity, on the bronchioles, as their potential use in the fight against obesity (Saxena and Yadav, 2018; Acta Biologica Marisiensis Bukvički et al, 2012;Purkon et al, 2022;Motti et al, 2023).…”