Avaliação in vitro da atividade antimicrobiana de oito espécies de plantas medicinais / In vitro assessment of the antimicrobial activity from eight medicinal plant species

A utilização de plantas medicinais, associada a processos infecciosos, tem impulsionado vários estudos químicos e farmacológicos, visando obter novos compostos com propriedades terapêuticas. Na atualidade, as bactérias que causam prejuízos à saúde humana possuem resistência à maioria dos antimicrobianos. Várias medidas tecnológicas são sugeridas para solucionar o problema da resistência das bactérias, sendo uma delas a procura de novos antimicrobianos a partir de espécies vegetais. Tendo-se em vista este contexto, com este trabalho propõe-se a avaliar a suscetibilidade das bactérias Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli e Pseudomonas aeruginosa aos extratos das plantas Rosmarinus officinalis, Origanum majorana, Salvia officinalis, Bidens pilosa, Ocimum gratissimum, Cymbopogon citratus, Sida rhombifolia e Leonotis nepetaefolia pelo método de difusão em discos. Os resultados mostraram que os extratos de R. officinalis possui atividade inibitória contra S. aureus, as plantas B. pilosa e O.majorana atuam sobre E. coli e P. aeruginosa e S. officinalis sobre P. aeruginosa. As outras plantas foram ineficazes para inibir as bactérias testadas. Com esses resultados pode-se verificar que Rosmarinus, Bidens, Origanum e Salvia podem ser fontes de agentes antimicrobianos.

The use of medicinal plants, associated to infectious processes, has stimulated a number of chemical and pharmacological studies to obtain new compounds with therapeutic properties. Nowadays, microorganisms which cause damages to human health have resistance to most of the antimicrobial drugs. Many technological steps are suggested for solving the bacterial resistance matter, and one of them is the search for new antimicrobial drugs from vegetal species. Therefore, this article assesses the antibacterial activity from different extracts of Rosmarinus officinalis, Origanum majorana, Salvia officinalis, Bidens pilosa, Ocimum gratissimum, Cymbopogon citratus, Sida rhombifolia and Leonotis nepetaefolia tested against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa by using the disk diffusion method. The results of the test showed that extracts from R. officinalis have inhibited the activity against S. aureus, B. pilosa, and O. majorana plants acted upon E. coli and P. aeruginosa, and S. officinalis upon P. aeruginosa. The other plants were ineffective to inhibit the bacteria tested. From these tests, it was verified that Rosmarinus, Bidens, Origanum and Salvia may be sources of antimicrobial agents.

Increased triglyceride levels in a Japanese population living in southern Brazil.

BACKGROUND: In the present study we investigated 96 individuals of Japanese descent living in southern Brazil (Cascavel-PR) in terms of triglyceride (TG) levels (> or < or = 200 mg/dL) and compared them to non-Japanese control individuals. METHODS: We analyzed TG and total cholesterol (TC) levels by an enzymatic method and apolipoprotein A-I and B (apo A-I and apo B) by a turbidimetric method. We also determined the lipoproteins HDL and LDL by a direct method and by electrophoresis. All these determinations were performed in plasma. RESULTS: TG levels were above 200 mg/dL in 18.7% of the individuals of Japanese descent and in 8.4% of the controls. Mean TC levels were 259 mg/dL for Japanese descendants and 225 mg/dL for the control group. We observed that individuals of Japanese descent with TG levels above 200 mg/dL had the highest TC, LDL-c, and VLDL-c levels and the lowest HDL-c and apo A-I levels. Body mass index (BMI) was also higher in individuals of Japanese descent with TG above 200 mg/dL. CONCLUSIONS: This Japanese population has high TG levels compared to control individuals, and diet did not influence these levels.