Antibacterial, antifungal and cytotoxic activities of eight Asteraceae and two Rubiaceae plants from Colombian biodiversity

Abstract

Thirty crude extracts of eight plants belonging to Asteraceae and two to Rubiaceae families collected at different places from the Regional Natural Park Ucumarí (RNPU), Colombia, were tested for their antibacterial activity against two Gram-positive and two Gram-negative bacteria and three fungi. Both the antibacterial and the antimycotic activities were tested by the agar well diffusion method. The cytotoxic activity on the same plant extracts was determined through the brine shrimp lethality bioassay. The extracts from the Asteraceae family were more bioactive against Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus. The extracts of both families studied were bioactive against the fungi Candida albicans and Fusarium solani. In addition, the extracts of Asteraceae species displayed the greatest cytotoxic activities. However, the most important specie in this research was Gonzalagunia rosea Standl (Rubiaceae) because of the strong and moderate activities of the methanol and dichloromethane extracts against C. albicans and F. solani, respectively; as well as the strong cytotoxic activity of the methanol extract. None of these ten plants has previously been reported for their biological activities.