Monday, July 27, 2009
P108

Antibacterial activity of Sassafras randaiense

Tzung-hsien Lai, Tracy Jan, and Hong-mao Lin. Development Center for Biotechnology, 101, Lane 169, Kang ning street,, Taipei county, Taiwan

Taiwan sassafras (Sassafras randaiense) is an economically valuable, indigenous hardwood species, which is sparsely distributed in mixed hardwood forests of the central mountains at elevations from 900 to 2400m in Taiwan. Leaf extracts of Sassafras randaiense plant species based on a preliminary screening were evaluated for antibacterial and antifungal activities using paper disk-agar diffusion assay and microplate dilution method.

The methanolic extract was further subfractionated using various solvents and the butanolic sub-fraction was found to possess maximum inhibitory activity against a spectrum of bacteria including Staphylococcus aureus. Activity-guided fractionation was used to determine the antibacterial components, and three of major active components: magnolol, isomagnolol and magnaldehyde were identified with minimal inhibitory concentrations of 2 ug/ml and below against Staphylococcus aureus. The purity of the components was verified by high-performance liquid chromatography and a time-kill experiment indicated that the purified component showed identical bactericidal activity to the whole extract.