Antimycobacterial activities of selected medicinal plants from Zimbabwe against Mycobacterium aurum and Corynebacterium glutamicum.

The spread of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis necessitates the discovery of new classes of antibacterials and compounds that inhibit macromolecules involved in these resistant mechanisms. Thirty ethanol extracts from nineteen selected plants from Zimbabwe were screened against Mycobacterium aurum and Corynebacterium glutamicum using the agar disk diffusion method. These two organisms were used as models for Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The amount of ciprofloxacin accumulated and effluxed by the test organism was used to determine whether the plant extracts could also act as drug efflux pump inhibitors. Vernonia adoensis and Mangifera indica extracts at 500 mg/disk had the highest growth inhibitory activity against M. aurum and C. glutamicum respectively. The extract from Parinari curatellifolia had an MIC of 8 μg/ disk and an MBC of 63 μg/disk; an MIC of 125 μg/disk and an MBC of >500 μg/disk against M. aurum and C. glutamicum respectively. All the plant extracts were bacteriostatic and showed antagonistic effects when combined with rifampicin. The extract from P. curatellifolia made M. aurum and C. glutamicum accumulate the highest amount of ciprofloxacin. The accumulation of ciprofloxacin caused by P. curatellifolia extract was greater than that caused by the drug efflux inhibitor reserpine. This plant may serve as a source of lead compounds in the search of new antimycobacterials with new mechanisms of action.