Antibacterial and Anticancer Activity of Ethnomedicinal Plants Used in the Jongilanga Community, Mpumalanga

Seventy-four ethanolic extracts were prepared from traditionally used medicinal plants in the Jongilanga community in Mpumalanga South Africa. The aim was to determine the biological activity of the selected plants against cancer, mycobacteria species and acne. From the results, it was evident that Mundulea sericea was able to inhibit the proliferation of human melanoma cells (A375) with a fifty percent inhibitory concentration (IC50) ranging between 50 and 100 µg/ml as well as the ability to inhibit Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycobacterium smegmatis and Propionibacterium acnes with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of 125, 31.25 and 7.9 µg/ml respectively. This further led to the investigation of the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity as well as the influence of the extract on mycothiol disulphide reductase (Mtr) and glutathione reductase enzymes (Gtr) as potential targets against the above-mentioned diseases. M. sericea inhibited the COX-2 enzyme, responsible for inflammation, with an IC50 value of 10.70 ± 1.14 µg/ml, furthermore compounds previously isolated from M. sericea showed potential inhibition of COX-2 in molecular docking studies. Low radical scavenging capacity against the DPPH free radical with an IC50 value of 60.52 ± 2.40 µg/ml was obtained, however, M. sericea showed a higher affinity towards Mtr as compared to Gtr, which makes it an ideal plant for use as an antimycobacterial agent.