Monday, August 12, 2013
Pavilion (Sheraton San Diego)
A tremendous increase in use of the anti-infective drugs was identified as the major factor in accelerating microbial evolution and antibiotic resistance. Therefore, public health is still being threatened by several bacterial, fungal and viral diseases in developing countries, even though a significant progress has been made in drug discovery within the last decade. Thus, for the future of the public health, recent studies are focused on to find new and alternative anti-infectives from natural sources such as plants, animals and fungi. Interestingly the potent anti-infective sources of natural products may also have regulatory function on human cellular oxidative balance. In this concept, fungi are not only the source of nutrients but also the active components to prevent several diseases through the mechanisms including glutathione and antioxidant defense. The aim of this study was to determine the in vitro antimicrobial activity of S. verrucosum, S.imbricatus, C. cibarius extracts on several bacterial and fungal strains, and their antioxidant role by chemical and enzymatic in vitro assays. The results reveal that fungi, similar to plants, have phenolic components with strong antioxidant effect, in addition to aqueous components with potential anti-infective response.
Key words: Scleroderma verrucosum, Sarcodon imbricatus, Cantharellus cibarius, screening, antimicrobial activity, antioxidant activity, disc diffusion method.