Antimicrobial activity testing of traditionally used plants for treating wounds and sores at Ongoye area KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
This study focused on the investigation of plants used for the treatment of wounds and sores by local people living around the Ongoye forest, KwaZulu-Natal. An ethnobotanical survey was conducted in eighty homesteads in this area. The ethnobotanical data revealed that 33 plant species were used in treating sores and wounds, but only 15 plant species were collected from the wild and homesteads and three plant species were bought from a muthi market. According to the ethnobotanical information Hypericum aethiopicum (unsukumbili) was the most used plant for treating sores and wounds in this area. The survey showed that women (62.5%) possessed more knowledge than the men (37.5%) who were interviewed at the homesteads regarding the medicinal uses of plants. Acetone, methanol, cold and hot water extracts from the different plant parts (bark, leaves, stems and the whole plant) were done on 18 species. These plants species are: Acanthospermum australe, Acorus calamus, Albizia adianthifolia, Baccharoides adoensis, Clerodendrum hirsutum, Combretum erythrophyllum, Faurea saligna, Gerbera ambigua, Gunnera perpensa, Hypericum aethiopicum, Hypoxis hemerocallidea, Lippia javanica, Pentanisia prunelloides, Sclerocarya birrea, Solanum aculeastrum, Trichilia dregeana, Warburgia salutaris, Ziziphus mucronata. The above-mentioned plants were screened for antibacterial activity against the following bacteria strains: Bacillus subtilis (6051), Escherichia coli (7751, U1405s, U16406, U16403), Klebsiella pneumoniae (13883), Staphylococcus aureus (12600, P5020, P4790, T1266), ‘Salmonella spp., Shigella flexneri and Shigella sonnei’. The antibacterial activities were determined by disk-diffusion, agar-well diffusion, minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) and bio-autographic methods. The plant extracts were also screened for the following phytochemicals: alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, anthraquinones, cardiac glycosides and tannins. The following plants were the most effective against the micro-organisms tested: Gunnera perpensa, Hypericum aethiopicum, Hypoxis hemerocallidea, Lippia javanica, Pentanisia prunelloides, Trichilia dregeana and Warburgia salutaris. The bio-autographic results showed several compounds separated on the TLC with activity against the test organism, Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC2600). This study thus lends some support to traditional knowledge and may serve as a basis for selecting the most active medicinal plants to use in traditional medicine practices in the future.
Wounds and sores, Traditional medicine--South Africa--KwaZulu-Natal.
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