A review of medicinal plants used in the Brazilian Cerrado for the treatment of fungal and bacterial infections

• Published in: Journal of herbal medicine Vol. 31; p. 100523
• Main Authors: da Cruz, Jhonatas Emílio Ribeiro, Saldanha, Hellyssa Cataryna, Freitas, Guilherme Ramos Oliveira e, Morais, Enyara Rezende
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier GmbH 01-02-2022
• Subjects: Antibacterial; Antifungal; Cerrado; Medicinal plants; Minimum inhibitory concentration; Medicinal plants; Antifungal; Antibacterial; Cerrado; Minimum inhibitory concentration
• ISSN: 2210-8033
• DOI: 10.1016/j.hermed.2021.100523

This review provides an extensive summary of the in vitro antibacterial and antifungal properties of medicinal plants commonly used in the Brazilian Cerrado biome to treat infections. In addition, we document information about the parts of the plants evaluated, the type of extract, methods, concentration, microorganisms, secondary metabolites and minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) for each species are documented.
A systematic literature search was performed using the peer-reviewed electronic databases PubMed, Scielo, Google Scholar and Science Direct, from 2005 to date. Search terms such as “medicinal use of Cerrado plants”, were used, either alone or alongside the terms “antifungal” or “antibacterial”. Of the 217 titles identified by the search, 40 were adequate according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria.
The most commonly used part of the plant was the leaves (55.12%). The plant families Myrtaceae (17.07%) and Leguminosae (12.19%) included the largest number of active species. The large number of medicinally-used plants in these families may be due to the presence of high numbers of active metabolites such as tannins, flavonoids and coumarins. Antimicrobial activity in vitro against 60 different species of microorganisms that showed some sensitivity to plant extracts was documented. This group consisted of 16 species of fungi, 26 species of gram-positive bacteria and 18 species of gram-negative bacteria.
The authors anticipate that this review will be useful for future studies, as it provides useful information for the selection of clinically-important plants and their potential antifungal and antibacterial properties.
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•Review of Cerrado plants with antibacterial and antifungal potential.•Type of extract, methods, microorganisms, secondary metabolites and MIC.•The most used part of the plant was the leaves (55.12%).•In vitro antimicrobial activity against 16 species of fungi, 44 species of bacteria.•Highlight of antimicrobial activity for the Myrtaceae and Leguminosae families.