Scientific Papers. Series B, Horticulture. Vol. LXII, 2018 Print ISSN 2285-5653, CD-ROM ISSN 2285-5661, Online ISSN 2286-1580, ISSN-L 2285-5653 ANTIMICROBIAL POTENTIAL OF ROMANIAN SPONTANEOUS FLORA - A MINIREVIEW Tomina PURCARU, Camelia DIGUŢĂ, Florentina MATEI University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest, Faculty of Biotechnologies, 59 Mărăşti Blvd, District 1, Bucharest, Romania Corresponding author email: [email protected] Abstract In the past decades, clinical microbiologists, practitioners and professionals in food safety, are facing new challenges related to new born microbial pathogens as well as to the phenomenon of the antibiotic and biocide resistance developed by the pathogens. Meanwhile, in Romania has been noticed an increase in scientific publications dealing with the potential of Romanian aromatic and medicinal plants and their therapeutic use. The paper proposes a mini- review on scientifically proved antimicrobial activity of aerial and underground parts of some spontaneous plant from Romanian flora. The review approaches annual and perennial plants, from herbaceous species to bushes and trees. In our search we have identified a total of 64 species from autochthonous flora involved in studies on antimicrobial activity, belonging to 21 botanical families. Among these species, 28.1% are annual plants, 46.9% are herbaceous perennial plants and the rest (25%) are woody perennial species (bushes and trees). Almost 50% of the active species belongs to Asteraceae and Lamiaceae botanical families. For 89% of the species have been reported antibacterial activity, while only 57.8% of the species have proven antifungal activity. Key words: Romanian spontaneous flora, antibacterial, antifungal, phytopharmaceutical use. INTRODUCTION different mechanisms, more or less elucidated, the microorganisms became over and over In the past decades, clinical microbiologists, resistance to the new antibiotics and biocids. practitioners and professionals in food safety, Meanwhile, with the growing consumer are facing new challenges related to new born demand for natural preservatives to replace microbial pathogens as well as to the chemical compounds, plant antimicrobial phenomenon of the antibiotic and biocide compounds must be thoroughly investigated for resistance developed by the pathogens, of their potential to serve as natural preservatives which the most studied is methicillin-resistant (Hintz et al, 2015); on this side, very recently, Staphyloccous aureus MRSA (Lee et al., 2015). an exhaustive overview on natural food The antibiotic resistance crisis has been preservatives with antimicrobial properties has attributed to the overuse and misuse of the been reported by Pisoschi et al. (2018).In this medications, as well as the lack of new drug context, the “return to the origins”, meaning the development by the pharmaceutical industry use of the spontaneous flora as antimicrobial due to reduced economic incentives and tool may be a solution of the antibiotic “crisis” challenging regulatory requirements (Ventola, and the replacement of chemical preservatives. 2015). In ancient times, microbial infections A lot of studies have been published in the past were treated empirically, by the use of different two decades and it has been proven that natural solutions, including the use of different spontaneous flora of each continent, plants prepared under different formulations. hemisphere, country or region has an immense Starting with the discovery of penicillin by Sir potential in obtaining different products with Alexander Fleming in 1928, antibiotics have antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory impact. transformed modern medicine. Over the past The repository of the whole information is decades, starting with 1950, it has been proven quite difficult because of the huge volume of that bacteria have developed resistance to data, but there are some reports related to different antibiotics; as a consequence, new different countries or regions. For example, in synthesis substances have been developed to Balkan regions (Southeast Europe), where treat the infections (Ventola, 2015); because of Romania belongs, an ethnobotanical analysis 667 showed that 128 plant species (105 wild, 22 proposes to present an overview of Romanian cultivated and 1 wild/cultivated) are used in the spontaneous flora proved by experimental treatment of wounds. Their application is approach to have antimicrobial effect. external, in the form of infusions, decoctions, tinctures, syrups, oils, ointments, and balms, or MATERIALS AND METHODS direct to the skin. Among those plants recorded, the most commonly used in Balkans are Online information research was conducted by Plantago major, Hypericum perforatum, the use of different database collections and on- Plantago lanceolata, Achillea millefolium, searching engines (Google Academic, Web of Calendula officinalis, Sambucus nigra, Knowledge, PubMed, ScienceDirect and Tussilago farfara and Prunus domestica (Jaric Embase, InTech and Hindawi databases). The et al., 2018). As in all the other countries or information has been structured in relation to regions, on the ancient lands of the actual the plants type (annual/biennial and perennial Romania, it was a vivant interest in the use of plants, from herbaceous species to bushes and different plants to treat human, animal or even trees).Where information was available, the plants’ infections. Jaric et al. (2018) make district or the county of the plant origin have references to different studies and report that in been specified. Romania, out of more than 3600 species of plants, over 700 are medicinal plants. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS Nowadays the interest has been resuscitated and more complex studies have been performed The database screening has led to a collection related to the chemical composition of the of over sixty scientific publications, dated from popular plants, as well as on testing their 2007 to 2018. The authors have reported the antimicrobial effect by the use of a use of different types of extracts (aqueous, standardized methodological approach. On our alcoholic or PEG extracts), as well as the use knowledge, there is no comprehensive review essential oils of different plants in testing the on the published studies developed on antimicrobial activity. Different methods have Romanian level in relation to our local flora been used to test the antimicrobial activity of and its antimicrobial properties. However, different plants products. The most usual Amarioarei et al. (2016) has published a method is the agar diffusion method described scientometric analysis performed on data by different authors or clinical standards in collected from Scopus, during 2000-2015; the USA or Europe (Brown, 1978; Das et al., review contains information on number of 2010). The findings are described in the papers, citations, affiliation and number of following, grouped in annual or perennial authors dealing with the potential of Romanian plants, herbaceous or woody groups. aromatic and medicinal plants and their therapeutic use. The authors have reported an 1) Annual / Biennial plants increasing trend for such publications in The reported antimicrobial activity of Romania starting with 2007 which we could annual/biennial plants from Romanian flora are rely with the variety of funding available synthetized in Table 1 and their appurtenance through the national and regional funding to botanical family is clearly specified. programs. Also, there is some information There are different studies targeting the provided from some Romanian geographical botanical family Lamiaceae, which includes regions on plants having different most of the aromatic plants like Origanum phytopharmaceutical effects; for example, in vulgare L., Melissa officinalis L. or Ocimum Banat region were identified about 140 plant basilicum L.; ethanolic extracts of aerial parts species with antioxidant potential (Antal, of these plants have been proven to have some 2010). Generally, antioxidant activity is due to antibacterial activity on Listeria polyphenol content, especially flavonoids monocytogenes, Stahpylococcus aureus compounds, and it is assumed that same (Benedec et al., 2015), as well as antifungal compounds are partially responsible for the activity on Candida albicans (Tuchila et al., antimicrobial activity. The present paper 2008; Benedec et al., 2015). 668 Table 1. Romanian annual herbaceous plants with antimicrobial activity Plant species Botanical Plant part Antimicrobial activity Reference family Bacteria Fungi Origanum vulgare L. Lamiaceae hb; fl; fs Listeria monocytogenes Candida albicans Benedec et al., 2015 Stahpylococcus aureus Dobre et al., 2011 E. coli Sandru et al., 2015 Salmonella enteridis Melissa officinalis L. Lamiaceae hb; fl; fs Listeria monocytogenes Candida albicans Benedec et al., 2015 Stahpylococcus aureus Hancianu et al., 2008 Ocimum basilicum L. Lamiaceae hb; fl; fs Listeria monocytogenes Candida albicans Benedec et al., 2015 Staphylococcus aureus Stefan et al., 2011 E. coli Tuchila et al., 2008 Streptococcus cricetus Vlase et al., 2014 Thymus vulgaris L. Lamiaceae hb; fl; fs Staphylococcus aureus Candida albicans Boruga et al., 2014. Klebsiella pneumoniae Aspergillus niger Dobre et al., 2011 Salmonella typhimurium Grigore Armatu et al., E. coli 2012 Enterococcus faecalis Varga et al., 2015 Salmonella enteridis Pseudomonas aeruginosa Listeria innocua Streptococcus pyogenes Thymus pulegioides hb E. coli Candida albicans Pavel et al.,