A Group of IPB Researchers Discovered Indonesian Endogenous Medicinal Plants for Antituberculosis
Medicinal plants are widely used in traditional medicine in both underdeveloped and developing countries in the word until now. Some secondary metabolites isolated from medicinal plants have been developed as modern drugs. Indonesia is endowed with a rich natural resource. The biodiversity comprises thousands plant species. Therefore, Indonesian flora and fauna are a remarkable opportunity for the development of secondary metabolites for pharmaceutical industry. To explore the pharmacological activities of those plant species a group of reserchers of the Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Bogor Agricultural University (FMIPA-IPB), namely Desmila Idola, I Made Artika, Wien Kusharyoto and Chul-sa Kim explored some Indonesian medicinal plants that have potential as antituberkulosis.
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB). It generally affects the lungs, but can also affect other parts of the body. Tuberculosis (TB) is a serious health problem that is listed as the number two killer disease in the world. Based on WHO data, Indonesia is ranked fifth with the highest TB cases in the world. TB controls are not up to date, ineffective and inaccessible. TB treatment is still the same since 40 years ago. Though Indonesia has the second largest biodiversity wealth in the world after Brazil which has potential as a medicinal plant for TB treatment. Tuberculosis is a global and serious Public Health problem due to the increase of multi drug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant cases; as a result, diverse research groups worldwide are focusing their efforts on finding novel antituberculous agents that can provide greater effectiveness, less toxicity and having a specific mechanism of action, possibly being coadjuvants in the treatments currently prescribed. Natural product drug discovery has regained interest due to low production costs, structural diversity, and multiple uses of active compounds to treat various diseases. Attention has been directed towards medicinal plants as these plants have been traditionally used for generations to treat symptoms of numerous diseases.
Made Artika said the research has been carried out to compare antimycobacterial activity of some selected Indonesian endogenous medicinal plants to be developed for TB treatment include lempuyang frangi (Zingiber aromaticum), makassar fruit (Brucea javanica), tabat barito (Ficus deltoidea), srigunggu (Clerodendrum serratum), sidaguri (Sida rhombifolia) and roofing (Baeckea frutescens). Those six plants have potential compounds against clinical isolate of multi-drug resistant (MDR) Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
He said, the antimicrobacterial activity of plant extracts is determined by the method of turbiditi. Testing of M. tuberculosis should be performed in laboratories with Level 3 biological safety (BSL-3) requiring trained laboratory and specialized equipment. This study was conducted using Mycobacterium smegmatis JCM6386 T. M. smegmatis bacteria is a non-pathogenic bacteria and its growth is eight times faster than M. tuberculosis. M. smegmatis were used to study the biological system of M. tuberculosis, such as cell culture and gene expression.
"Lempuyang wangi (Zingiberis aromaticae rhizome) is a kind of fragrant spices that is used as a mixture of drugs. Other plants such as Makassar fruit, tabat barito (Ficus deltoidea) leaves, Srigunggu / Senggugu (Clorodendron serratum) leaves, sidaguri (Sida rhombifolia) leaves and trunks have antimicrobacterial activity at 20 mg eq / mL extract. Lempuyang fragrant has the highest bacterial growth inhibition activity among others, "he said.
Having the highest antimicrobacterial activity among the five medicinal plants, the researchers conducted a separation based on the activity test results of fragrant methanol extract of lempuyang.
The result of the separation of fragrant lempuyang using HPLC indicated that the active compound lempuyang frangi as antimicrobacterial is (2E, 6E, 10E) -2,6,9,9-tetramethylcycloundeca2,6,10-trien-1-one (zerumbone). (Wied)
