Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a serious threat to global public health due to its capacity of tolerate conventional antibiotics. Medicinal plants are traditionally used to treat infectious diseases caused by bacterial pathogens. In the present study, 16 medicinal plants were screened for antibacterial activities to preselect more effective species. Ethanol extracts of selected medicinal plants (Caesalpinia sappan L., Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch., Sanguisorba officinalis L., and Uncaria gambir Roxb) were partitioned successively with different solvents (n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, 1-butanol, and water). Disc diffusion assay and broth microdilution were performed to evaluate the antibacterial activities of plant extracts and fractions against Staphylococcus aureus strains. Furthermore, the cytotoxicity of the extracts and fractions was determined against the human hepatoma (HepG2) and human lung carcinoma (A549) cell lines using a trypan blue exclusion method. A few extracts and fractions showed significant inhibitory effects on the bacterial growth of all tested strains, including multidrug-resistance (MDR) clinical isolates. The ethyl acetate fraction of C. sappan had the most potent effects with minimum inhibitory/bactericidal concentrations (MIC/MBC) of 31.2/62.5 μg/mL and showed low cytotoxicity with over 90% cell viability in both cells. Our results suggest that medicinal plants have considerable potential as alternatives to conventional antibiotics.
Keywords: antibacterial; cytotoxicity; medicinal plants; methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus; multidrug-resistance.