抄録
Background: Microbial infections can involve any part of human body and may be trivial to very serious. Amongst serious infections are those which are encountered in hospital and are becoming one of the most significant health problems. Common microorganisms involved are opportunistic bacteria and fungi, which particularly infect immunocompromised patients. Moreover, microbes are becoming resistant to presently available drugs. Therefore, there is a need to develop new drugs to treat infections. Salvia officinalis (English, Sage; Arabic, Maramia) has been widely used in Saudi Arabia, other Middle East countries and Europe as a flavoring agent, food preservative and for the treatment of infections. Recently, some investigators have reported antimicrobial activity of Maramia against Streptococci, Staphylococci, Bacillus species and food born species of Aspergillus and Fusarium. The present study was aimed to investigate activity of Maramia against resistant and opportunistic infections.
Methods: ATCC strains of gram positive and gram negative bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and an opportunistic fungus (Candida albicans) were purchased from Micromaster Saudi Arabia. Clinical isolates of drug resistant micro-organism, Methicillin Resistant Staph aureus (MRSA), Multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii and a fungus, Aspergillus flavus, were obtained from the Microbiology Department of Prince Abdulaziz Bin Musaad Hospital, Arar. Agar dilution method was used to determine minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of methanolic extract of S. officinalis against test organisms as recommended by Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI).
Results: Methanolic extract of S. officinalis was found to have good activity against Staph aureus, MRSA, Entero. faecalis, multidrug resistant Acin. baumanni and a fungus, Candida albicans (MICs 5mg to 10mg/ml) and was relatively week against Gram (-) bacilli and Asp. flavus (MICs 20-40mg/ml).
Conclusions: S. officinalis possesses promising activity against resistant and opportunistic infections, to include: Staph aureus, MRSA, Entero. faecalis, multidrug resistant Acin. baumanni and Candida albicans. Study confirms the use of Maramia against skin and other infections in the folk medicine. Further investigations are needed to isolate active components and develop new drugs from this novel herb.
