ANTIMICROBIAL COMPOUNDS DETECTED IN BOCCONIA-ARBOREA EXTRACTS BY A DIRECT BIOAUTOGRAPHIC METHOD

Background: Among the numerous in vitro methods for studying the antim icrobial activity of plant drugs, bioautography has found widespread a pplications, especially for the detection of new compounds in complex plant extracts, Methods: This paper describes the results obtained dur ing the application of the bioautographic method to detect antimicrobi al compounds in a chloroformic extract of leaves and stems of Bocconia arborea, a plant used profusely in traditional medicine for the treat ment of diverse infectious diseases, Results and Conclusions: The meth od allows for the detection of spots of growth inhibition of cultures directly in the extract thin layer chromatographic plate previously di spersed with a broth culture containing the microorganisms, The proced ure also allowed for the detection of the presence of several products in the B. arborea extract with considerable activity against five dif ferent microorganisms. Additionally, the method allowed the determinat ion that the antimicrobial activity is due to compounds of probable al kaloid origin.