A Water-Soluble Antibiotic in Rhubarb Stalk Shows an Unusual Pattern of Multiple Zones of Inhibition and Preferentially Kills Slow-Growing Bacteria

Organic extract of Rhubarb (Rheum officinale) roots is known to have several medicinal uses. However, not much research has been done with the rhubarb stalk. The aim of this research is to evaluate the anti-bacterial and anti-proliferative effects of the aqueous extract from rhubarb stalks. The crud...

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Autores principales: Bhattacharjee, Mrinal K., Bommareddy, Praveen K., DePass, Anthony L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8389023/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34439001
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics10080951
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author Bhattacharjee, Mrinal K.
Bommareddy, Praveen K.
DePass, Anthony L.
author_facet Bhattacharjee, Mrinal K.
Bommareddy, Praveen K.
DePass, Anthony L.
author_sort Bhattacharjee, Mrinal K.
collection PubMed
description Organic extract of Rhubarb (Rheum officinale) roots is known to have several medicinal uses. However, not much research has been done with the rhubarb stalk. The aim of this research is to evaluate the anti-bacterial and anti-proliferative effects of the aqueous extract from rhubarb stalks. The crude aqueous extract was further purified using anion exchange and gel filtration. The purified compound demonstrated broad spectrum antibacterial activity against the Gram-negative bacteria, E. coli and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, and Gram-positive bacteria, S. aureus. A time-kill assay demonstrated that the antibiotic has strong bactericidal activity. It also has anti-proliferative action against the breast cancer cell line MCF-7 with no cytotoxicity, although the crude extract had a significant cytotoxic effect. The antibiotic activity, as measured by the diameter of the zone of inhibition, increased by several fold in low nutrient and/or low salt agar, suggesting that the antibiotic preferentially kills slow-growing bacteria. The antibiotic also gives an unusual pattern of multiple zones of inhibition in which several zones of cell growth are seen within the zone of inhibition. In conclusion, the active component in the aqueous extract of rhubarb stalk has great potential as a strong bactericidal antibiotic and as an anti-proliferative drug.
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spelling pubmed-83890232021-08-27 A Water-Soluble Antibiotic in Rhubarb Stalk Shows an Unusual Pattern of Multiple Zones of Inhibition and Preferentially Kills Slow-Growing Bacteria Bhattacharjee, Mrinal K. Bommareddy, Praveen K. DePass, Anthony L. Antibiotics (Basel) Article Organic extract of Rhubarb (Rheum officinale) roots is known to have several medicinal uses. However, not much research has been done with the rhubarb stalk. The aim of this research is to evaluate the anti-bacterial and anti-proliferative effects of the aqueous extract from rhubarb stalks. The crude aqueous extract was further purified using anion exchange and gel filtration. The purified compound demonstrated broad spectrum antibacterial activity against the Gram-negative bacteria, E. coli and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, and Gram-positive bacteria, S. aureus. A time-kill assay demonstrated that the antibiotic has strong bactericidal activity. It also has anti-proliferative action against the breast cancer cell line MCF-7 with no cytotoxicity, although the crude extract had a significant cytotoxic effect. The antibiotic activity, as measured by the diameter of the zone of inhibition, increased by several fold in low nutrient and/or low salt agar, suggesting that the antibiotic preferentially kills slow-growing bacteria. The antibiotic also gives an unusual pattern of multiple zones of inhibition in which several zones of cell growth are seen within the zone of inhibition. In conclusion, the active component in the aqueous extract of rhubarb stalk has great potential as a strong bactericidal antibiotic and as an anti-proliferative drug. MDPI 2021-08-06 /pmc/articles/PMC8389023/ /pubmed/34439001 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics10080951 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Bhattacharjee, Mrinal K.
Bommareddy, Praveen K.
DePass, Anthony L.
A Water-Soluble Antibiotic in Rhubarb Stalk Shows an Unusual Pattern of Multiple Zones of Inhibition and Preferentially Kills Slow-Growing Bacteria
title A Water-Soluble Antibiotic in Rhubarb Stalk Shows an Unusual Pattern of Multiple Zones of Inhibition and Preferentially Kills Slow-Growing Bacteria
title_full A Water-Soluble Antibiotic in Rhubarb Stalk Shows an Unusual Pattern of Multiple Zones of Inhibition and Preferentially Kills Slow-Growing Bacteria
title_fullStr A Water-Soluble Antibiotic in Rhubarb Stalk Shows an Unusual Pattern of Multiple Zones of Inhibition and Preferentially Kills Slow-Growing Bacteria
title_full_unstemmed A Water-Soluble Antibiotic in Rhubarb Stalk Shows an Unusual Pattern of Multiple Zones of Inhibition and Preferentially Kills Slow-Growing Bacteria
title_short A Water-Soluble Antibiotic in Rhubarb Stalk Shows an Unusual Pattern of Multiple Zones of Inhibition and Preferentially Kills Slow-Growing Bacteria
title_sort water-soluble antibiotic in rhubarb stalk shows an unusual pattern of multiple zones of inhibition and preferentially kills slow-growing bacteria
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8389023/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34439001
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics10080951
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