About This Project

One in three deaths are attributed to infectious diseases due to the rise of multiple drug resistant bacteria (super-bacteria). This is a major concern for low-income families and those in poverty, where infectious diseases are responsible for nearly 60% of all deaths. The situation is alarming since discovery of new antibiotics is constantly declining. To combat the rise of super-bacteria, I will isolate new compounds from crude medicinal plant extracts that I have begun to characterize.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

The discovery and characterization of new antibacterial drugs is essential for the future of healthcare. Previously, I performed a meta-study identifying medicinal plants that were used in aboriginal communities towards the treatment of infections diseases (burns, cuts, mouth conditions). I prepared crude extracts from these plants and analyzed their antibacterial activity through standard assays: hole-plate diffusion, minimum inhibitory and bactericidal concentration (MIC and MBC), and time kill assays. From these studies, I have obtained very exciting and promising results with real world applications. In this grant, I am proposing to isolate the specific phytochemicals from our promising crude medicinal plant extracts and test their efficacy against super-bacteria.

What is the significance of this project?

Infectious diseases are a major concern in our society. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in three deaths can be attributed to communicable or infectious diseases. This problem is traceable to the evolution of multiple drug resistant strains of pathogenic bacteria from the concentrated use of existing antibacterial drugs. The situation is especially dire since the discovery of new drugs has been declining steadily and hit a 20 year low in 2001. This may be attributed to retraction of pharmaceutical research on natural products due to the advent of of high throughput screening (HTS) technology and combinatorial chemistry. Subsequently, there is a growing interest in the vast potential of medicinal plants as sources of novel antibacterial phytopharmaceuticals.

What are the goals of the project?

In a previous investigation, I found that the leaf and flower extracts of Anaphalis margaritacea and Grindelia squarrosa possess significant antibacterial activity against the panel of bacteria tested, with inhibition of bacteria within 0.5 - 12 hours of incubation at minimum bactericidal concentration - an assessment of the smallest amount of crude extract that can kill bacteria. The goal of this project is to proceed towards the isolation and characterization of antibacterial compounds or pharmacophores from these plant extracts. Then, these pure compounds are to be tested against an extensive panel of super-bacteria: Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, Staphylococci aureus, Enterococci sp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumanii.