Biochemistry & Pharmacology: Open Access
Open Access
ISSN: 2167-0501
ISSN: 2167-0501
Jacobus Nicolaas (Kobus) Eloff
Accepted Abstracts: Biochem & Pharmacol
Plants have yielded many pharmaceutical products with different therapeutic applications. Although there have been thousands of publications, no useful antibiotic product has been developed from plants, the following factors may explain the situation: wrong extractant used, wrong bioassay used, very low activity of isolated antimicrobial compounds and investigating only plants used traditionally. The antibacterial activity of acetone leaf extracts of more than 700 South African tree species on important nosocomial bacterial pathogens Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Mycobacterium smegmatis and two fungi Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans were determined. From more than 700 tree species, 135 leaf extracts had a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 0.04 mg/ml or lower against these important pathogens. Many extracts were cytotoxic to mammalian cells. Many of these species have a good potential to be used as crude extracts to treat topical infections in humans. Two patented examples will be discussed where these extracts have been as effective as commercial products in controlling microbial infections in animals and plants. The problems in commercializing plant extracts as antimicrobials e.g. quality control, availability of material and variability will also be discussed. It appears that if the focus is on using extracts rather than isolated pure compounds, there is a considerable opportunity to use the compounds present in plants to combat microbial infections if the best extractant and methods are used.
Jacobus Nicolaas (Kobus) Eloff was Professor University of Free State, Cape Town, Pretoria, executive director, National Botanic Gardens, and research director, National Botanical Institute. Now, he is leader of interdisciplinary phytomedicine programme and guided 46 M.Sc. and 31 Ph.D. students. He is editor of several scientific journals, and 10 books. He has more than 200 scientific publications with more than 4200 citations, H-factor: 31, 175 presentations international scientific meetings, >50 invited, plenary or keynote lectures. He received several national and international awards including NSTF Eskom award for capacity development, Bronze medal from International Society Horticulture, Silver and Gold medal, Botany, Gold medal, SA AkademieWetenskap en Kuns, Gold medal, SA Academy for Science.