Chemical Constituents and Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Activities of Essential Oil from Dried Seeds of Xylopia aethiopica

The study aimed to investigate the chemical composition and antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of the essential oil from dried seeds of Xylopia aethiopica. The essential oil was obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by GC/FID and GC/MS. The essential oil yield was 1.35%. Forty-nine compounds were identified in the essential oil with 1,8-cineole (16.3%), β-pinene (14.8%), trans-pinocarveol (9.1%), myrtenol (8.3%), α-pinene (5.9%), and terpinen-4-ol (5.6%) as major components. The antimicrobial activity of this essential oil was studied using disk diffusion and broth microdilution methods on four bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and one fungus (Candida albicans). The essential oil exhibited excellent activity against S. aureus, E. faecalis, and C. albicans and moderate activity against E. coli. Among all strains tested, C. albicans showed the best sensitivity with a MIC of 50 mg/mL. The antioxidant activity was examined using a DPPH-free radical scavenging assay. The essential oil of X. aethiopica showed low antioxidant activity (IC50 = 784.604 ± 0.320 mg/mL) compared to that of ascorbic acid and the reference compound (IC50 = 0.163 ± 0.003 mg/mL). The results indicate that consumption of X. aethiopica seeds can reduce the virulence of food-borne pathogens and their resistance to antibiotics

Some medicinal plants from Senegal used in the management of infectious diseases: evaluation of their antimicrobial and antiparasitic activities

Infectious diseases with bacterial origin are one of the leading causes of death worldwide, with about 17 million deaths each year. Beside these bacterial infections, several parasitic infections deserve special attention due to a lack of effective treatments. Among these infections, human African trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness, and leishmaniasis have a strong impact on morbimortality and makes them a public health problem. These infectious diseases, which are part of the neglected tropical diseases, urgently need to be addressed through research and development of new antibiotics and antiparasitics. The search for new drugs can be based on plant biodiversity, which is an inexhaustible reserve of bioactive natural products. Africa, and Senegal in particular, is rich in many medicinal plants used by traditional medicine in the treatment of infectious diseases. [...