Context: The idea that many commonly used medicinal plants may lead to the discovery of new drugs has encouraged the study of local knowledge of these resources.
Objective: An ethnobotanical survey of species traditionally used for the treatment of infectious diseases was undertaken in two areas of northeastern Brazil: one in the Caatinga (dry forest) and another in the Atlantic Forest (humid forest).
Materials: Initially, diffusion tests using paper disks and subsequently, for extracts presenting significant results (inhibition halos above 15 mm), minimum inhibitory concentrations were determined. The activity was evaluated as a percentage for each species, comparing the diameters of the inhibition halos and the number of positive results against the seven microorganisms studied. Extracts were classified into three categories: strong activity-species with halos exceeding 16 mm, moderate activity-species with halos between 13 mm and 15 mm and low activity-species with halos below 12 mm. We selected 34 species, 20 from the Caatinga and 14 from the Atlantic Forest.
Results: In the Caatinga, 50% of the 20 plant extracts studied had strong antimicrobial activity, 25% had moderate activity and 15% had low activity. In the Atlantic Forest, 28.5% of the 14 plant extracts studied showed strong activity, with 14.5% having moderate activity and 28.5% having low activity. The microorganism that was most susceptible to the extracts from the Caatinga, was Mycobacterium smegmatis; 85% of the species tested were able to inhibit its growth. The organism that was susceptible to the highest number of plant species (71%) from the Atlantic Forest was Staphylococcus aureus.
Discussion and conclusions: Extracts from the Caatinga showed a trend of superior antimicrobial activity compared to the species from the Atlantic Forest, in terms of both inhibiting a greater variety of microorganisms and demonstrating higher activity against susceptible strains.