A plant from the altiplano of Northern Chile Senecio nutans, inhibits the Vibrio cholerae pathogen

BACKGROUND: In the altiplano of Northern Chile the plant Senecio nutans is habitually used as an infusion to relieve the effects of altitude sickness (locally known as “puna”). It is also used to alleviate the bronchitis, whooping cough, asthma, stomachache, tiredness and fever. The extreme conditions under which these plant grow and scientific data that shows the inhibiting potential of the essential oils of plants of the genus Senecio represents great potential in the study of their application to control pathogens like Vibrio Cholera. METHODS: The essential oil from aerial parts of S. nutans was isolated by hydrodistillation and the chemical composition characterized by GC–MS analyses. The antibacterial potential and determination of MIC value, was estimated in both micro and macro dilution method. RESULTS: The GC–MS analysis of essential oil of S. nutans showed the presence of methyl cinnamate (44.9 %), p-cymenol (27.2 %), and terpinen-4-ol (6.8 %), α-terpineol (4.1 %), t-cadinol (3.5 %), methyl hydrocinnamate (2.1 %), δ-cadinene (2.0 %), p-cymene (1.9 %), γ-terpinene (1.8 %), α-cadinol (1.6 %), cis-sabinene hydrate (1.1 %), caryophyllene (0.9 %), β-pinene (0.8 %), and α-terpinene (0.6 %) as major components. Moreover, the oil of S. nutans exhibited an important antibacterial activity with a diameter of inhibition zone growth of 22 mm and the MIC value of 0.4 mg/mL against pathogenic bacteria V. cholerae. CONCLUSIONS: The results show for the first time the antibacterial activity of the essential oils of S. nutans against the V. cholerae pathogen, an activity that can be applied as a preventive treatment against the action of pathogen.