Acute toxicity studies, antioxidant and in vitro antibacterial activities of extract from the barks of Ricinodendron heudoletti (Euphorbiaceae)

摘要

Many bacteria are involved in infectious diseases. Most of these bacteria become resistant to the most commonly used synthetic drugs. In Cameroon, natural substance seem to be an alternative to this problem. Thus the aim of this research was to investigate the acute toxicity, antioxidant activities and the in vitro antibacterial of the methanol extract of Ricinodendron heudelotii (Euphorbiaceae) against twelve pathogenic bacteria involved in infectious diseases. The major bioactive components were also screened. The antibacterial activity of the extract was investigated against 12 strains including 10 Gram- and 2 Gram+ bacteria by disc diffusion method and micro dilution method, followed by another agar disc diffusion for the determination of inhibition diameters, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MICs) and the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), respectively. 2,2-Diphényl-1-Picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay was used to evaluate antiradical activity. The acute toxicity study was performed according to World Health Organization (WHO) protocol. The results of the antibacterial assays indicated that the crude extract was active on 8 of 12 strains tested, with MIC ranging from 188 to 750 μg/ml and MBC from 375 to 1500 μg/ml for the extract from barks of R. heudelotii. Overall, the results of this study indicated that the crude extract represented a potential source of antibacterial and antiradical compounds as shown in previous studies and justified their traditional use in the treatment of bacterial infections and other diseases in Cameroon.