Sri Lankan Folk Medicine Could Save Lives
The terpene-filled plant, Plectranthus zeylanicus Benth can be found growing in the hills of Sri Lanka and has been used in Sri Lankan folk medicine as a treatment for inflammation and microbial infections. A team of international researchers has been working to isolate the bioactive ingredients of this plant.
Previous investigations have found potent 5-LO inhibitory activity in lipophilic extracts of the P. zeylanicus, which supports the plant’s anti-inflammatory potential. In recent work, scientists have continued to investigate the anti-microbial properties of different plant extracts and pinpoint the plant’s bioactive secondary metabolites.
A dichloromethane (DCM) extract, subjected to Bioactivity-guided fractionation, yielded 7α-acetoxy-6β-hydroxyroyleanone. The compound displayed potent antibacterial activity against antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and showed general disinfectant properties similar to a commercially available disinfectant.
To determine the extract’s anti-inflammatory properties, human blood from volunteers was treated with test compounds and subjected to SPE cleanup using UCT product CEC18113 and analyzed using reversed-phase HPLC.
To read the complete paper Plectranthus Zeylanicus: A Rich Source of Secondary Metabolites with Antimicrobial, Disinfectant, and Anti-Inflammatory Activities, please click here. The article is Open Access.
Source:
Napagoda, M.; Gerstmeier, J.; Butschek, H.; Lorenz, S.; De Soyza, S.; Qader, M.; Nagahawatte, A.; Wijayaratne, G.B.; Schneider, B.; Svatoš, A.; Jayasinghe, L.; Koeberle, A.; Werz, O. Plectranthus zeylanicus: A Rich Source of Secondary Metabolites with Antimicrobial, Disinfectant and Anti-Inflammatory Activities. Pharmaceuticals 2022, 15, 436. https://doi.org/10.3390/ph15040436
