Comparative Anti-mycobacterial Activity on Lowenstein-Jensen Slants of Selected Medicinal Plants Used in the Congolese Pharmacopeia

摘要

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that kills approximately three million people annually worldwide. The emergence of multidrug resistant, extensively drug resistant and lengthy therapy reduces the patient compliance and therefore comprises control strategies. In this study, the leaves of Terminalia ivorensis, Carapa procera, Fagara macrophylla, Anacardium occidentale, Ficus spp. and Drepanoalpha (a polyherbal medicine to relieve sickle cell anaemia) were extracted with petroleum ether, ethyl acetate and methanol in order to screen potential bioactive compounds in different extracts and to assess their anti-mycobacterial activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv and Mycobacterium tuberculosis spp. on Lowenstein-Jensen medium using a qualitative approach. The activity was determined as to whether there was growth or not. It was shown that only the methanolic extract displayed a good activity on both strains than the petroleum ether and ethyl acetate extracts. The presence of phytochemicals in plants such as alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, saponins, anthocyanins and quinones known to be of medicinal importance pointed out a possible source for anti-mycobacterial agents to address the problem of multidrug resistance. The in vitro findings of this study provide a partial support for the use of these plants in the control of various infectious diseases as lead to drug discovery and should be reiterated and recommended for a clinical trial using an animal model.