Myristica lowiana Phytochemicals as Inhibitor of Plasmid Conjugation in Escherichia coli

Awo Afi Kwapong; Sarah Soares; Stephen Ping Teo; Paul Stapleton; Simon Gibbons

doi:10.1155/2020/1604638

Myristica lowiana Phytochemicals as Inhibitor of Plasmid Conjugation in Escherichia coli

Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2020 Jun 19:2020:1604638. doi: 10.1155/2020/1604638. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Awo Afi Kwapong¹, Sarah Soares², Stephen Ping Teo², Paul Stapleton², Simon Gibbons^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmaceutics and Microbiology, School of Pharmacy, University of Ghana, Ghana.
² Research Department of Pharmaceutical and Biological Chemistry, UCL School of Pharmacy, University College London, 29-39 Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AX, UK.
³ School of Pharmacy, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, Norfolk NR4 7TJ, UK.

Abstract

Hexane extract and methanol fraction from the stem bark of Myristica lowiana specifically and significantly inhibited the conjugal transfer of the IncW plasmid R7K, a plasmid which harbors ampicillin-, streptomycin-, and spectinomycin-resistant genes. The transfer of this plasmid via the conjugative pilli of Escherichia coli was reduced by 76.5 ± 2.0% and 79.0 ± 1.2% by hexane extract and methanol fraction of M. lowiana, respectively. The hexane extract exhibited significant anti-conjugant activity at a non-cytotoxic concentration of 100 mg/L as assessed against adult human dermal fibroblast cells. The hexane extract and methanol fraction were screened using phytochemical tests, NMR spectroscopy, IR spectroscopy, and high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HRESIMS) and were found to contain terpenoids, sterols, and fatty acids.