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An examination of the medicinal potential of Scaevola spinescens: Toxicity, antibacterial, and antiviral activities

1★, 2★ Corresponding author

  1. 1Department of Biomolecular and Physical Sciences, Nathan Campus, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Rd, Nathan, 2Environmental Futures Centre, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Rd, Nathan
  2. 2Department of Biomolecular and Physical Sciences, Nathan Campus, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Rd, Nathan

CORRESPONDENCE

Ian E. Cock

Department of Biomolecular and Physical Sciences, Nathan Campus, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Rd, Nathan

I.Cock@griffith.edu.au

Volume 3, Issue 2 · pp. 85-94 · 2011 · DOI: 10.4103/0974-8490.81955

ABSTRACT

Scaevola spinescens is an endemic Australian native plant with a history of use as a medicinal agent by indigenous Australians. Yet the medicinal bioactivities of this plant are poorly studied. S. spinescens solvent extracts were tested for antimicrobial activity, antiviral activity and toxicity in vitro. All extracts displayed antibacterial activity in the disc diffusion assay. The methanol extract proved to have the broadest specificity, inhibiting the growth of 7 of the 14 bacteria tested (50%). The water, ethyl acetate, chloroform, and hexane extracts inhibited the growth of 6 (42.9%), 5 (35.7%), 5 (35.7%), and 4 (28.6%) of the 14 bacteria tested, respectively. S. spinescens methanolic extracts were equally effective against Gram-positive (50%) and Gram-negative bacteria (50%). All other extracts were more effective at inhibiting the growth of Gram-negative bacteria. All extracts also displayed antiviral activity in the MS2 plaque reduction assay with the methanol, water, ethyl acetate, chloroform, and hexane extracts inhibiting 95.2 ± 1.8%, 72.3 ± 6.3%, 82.6 ± 4.5%, 100 ± 0% and 47.7 ± 12.9% of plaque formation, respectively. All S. spinescens extracts were nontoxic in the Artemia fransiscana bioassay with no significant increase in mortality induced by any extract at 24 and 48 h. The only increase in mortality was seen for the water extract at 72 h, although even this extract displayed low toxicity, inducing only 41.7 ± 23.3% mortality. The lack of toxicity of the S. spinescens extracts and their inhibitory bioactivity against bacteria and viruses validate the Australian Aboriginal usage of S. spinescens and indicates its medicinal potential.

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    Cock, I. E., & Kukkonen, L. (2011). An examination of the medicinal potential of Scaevola spinescens: Toxicity, antibacterial, and antiviral activities. Pharmacognosy Research, 3(2), 85-94. https://doi.org/10.4103/0974-8490.81955

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    © 2011 Author(s)

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0