Introduction: Medicinal plants are a great source of bioactive compounds, such as secondary metabolites, with diverse biological activities, including antibacterial properties. The rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria poses a significant threat to public health, necessitating the search for novel antibacterial agents. This research explored the presence of secondary metabolites such as flavonoids, tannins, saponins, and carotenoids, followed by the identification of CHS, SQS, PSY, and LAR genes and the antibacterial potential of medicinal plants such as Aloe barbadensis and Mentha piperita. The aim was to identify promising candidates for further investigation and development of antibacterial therapies.
Methods: This study was conducted using triplicates of Aloe barbadensis and Mentha piperita leaves. Both ethanolic and methanolic crude extracts of these plants were used. The methanolic and ethanolic crude extracts of the selected plants were used, as both have good solubility. The antibacterial profiling was also conducted using agar well diffusion, and the Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations (MICs) against four bacterial strains (Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia fergusonii Enterobacter cloacae & Citrobacter amalonaticus) were established. The presence of CHS, SQS, PSY, and LAR genes was investigated using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) of secondary metabolites.
Results: Both extracts showed almost consistent phenotypic results. None of the samples contained all four screened classes of secondary metabolites. The methanolic extracts showed higher antibacterial activity than the ethanolic extracts. Mint leaf was found to have a higher antibacterial potency compared to aloe vera. On the other hand, aloe vera showed positive results in the genotypic analysis, containing all four secondary metabolites. The mint did not contain any of the targeted genes in this study.
Conclusion: According to this study, the findings of the two samples were not aligned with the phenotypic and genotypic results. However, both samples were found to be a potential target in different analyses, suggesting their therapeutic potential. Further research can be conducted using larger number of samples to explore the underlying mechanisms.
