Scientists seek antimycobacterial drugs to tackle MTB

Scientists have sought antimycobacterial drugs in medicinal plants in order to tackle Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB).

Published in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, the paper explains that tuberculosis (TB) is caused by MTB.

The latter's resistance to antibacterial drugs is a "public health concern", the researchers highlight.

As such, they analysed the antimycobacterial activity of n-Hexane sub-fraction from Bridelia micrantha.

Resistant to all first-line drugs which tackle TB, a clinical isolate was used to test the effectiveness of the n-Hexane fraction.

It was found to inhibit it by 35 per cent, while tests against a strain of MTB were 20 per cent inhibited.

Chromatography and a variety of other techniques were used in order to acquire the data.

"The results show that the n-Hexane fraction of Bridelia micrantha has antimycobacterial activity," conclude the scientists Ezekiel Green, Lawrence Obi, Amidou Samie, Pascal Bessong and Roland Ndip.

BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine is an open-access online journal, which publishes peer-reviewed papers focusing on scientific research in this area.