Antimicrobial Activity of Plants Collected from Serpentine Outcrops in Sri Lanka

By N. Rajakaruna, Cory S. Harris, G. Towers. 2002

227 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Thirty-two plant species collected from serpentine (ultramafic) soils in Sri Lanka were screened for antimicrobial properties against three Gram-positive and two Gramnegative bacteria, a non-acid fast bacterium, and the yeast, Candida albicans. Methanol extracts of 29 species belonging to 12 families were active against at least one microorganism. Activity against the Gram-positive and non-acid fast bacteria was common, however, only two taxa, Lantana camara L. (Verbenaceae) and a species of Phyllanthus L. (Euphorbiaceae), were active against the Gram-negative bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. None of the species was active against the other Gram-negative bacterium, Escherichia coli, or C. albicans. Photoactivity was observed from extracts of 10 species belonging to 10 families, including Convolvulaceae, Lamiaceae, and Rhamnaceae where photoactivity has not been previously reported. Interestingly, Leucas zeylanica (L.) R. Br. (Lamiaceae), one of only three species collected from more than one site, showed population-level variation in photoactivity. This is the first study where plants from highly stressful serpentine environments have been tested for antimicrobial activity. Our findings suggest that plants from serpentine environments may have altered antimicrobial activities when compared to their relatives from non-serpentine environments, urging the need to pay attention to substrate, habitat, etc., when collecting plants to test for antimicrobial properties.

Subfields: Food Science, Pharmacology, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2732103868f2a8afd7fea2dd91d35ae76bcf9265

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

S. Sam
K. H. Khan
D. Ganjewala

Citations in the corpus

Biochemical compositions and antibacterial activities of Lantana camara plants with yellow, lavender, red and white flowers (2009, background): “…and Shukla 2002, Kumar et al. 2006), anti proliferative (Saxena et al. 1992, Nagao et al. 2002), and antimicrobial activities of L. camara (Saxena et al. 1992, Juliani et al. 2002, Kasali et al. 2002, Rajakaruna et al. 2002) including termicidal activity reported recently by Verma and Verma (2006).”