Antibacterial activity of some natural products against bacteria expressing a multidrug-resistant phenotype

The present study assessed the antimicrobial activities of various natural products belonging to the terpenoids, alkaloids and phenolics against a collection of Gram-negative multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria. The results demonstrated that most of the compounds were extruded by bacterial efflux pumps. In the presence of the efflux pump inhibitor phenylalanine arginine β-naphthylamide (PAβN), the activities of laurentixanthone B (xanthone), plumbagin (naphthoquinone), 4-hydroxylonchocarpin (flavonoid) and MAB3 (coumarin) increased significantly against all studied MDR bacteria. Laurentixanthone B, 4-hydroxylonchocarpin and MAB3 contained the same pharmacophoric moiety as plumbagin. This study indicates that the AcrAB–TolC (Enterobacteriaceae) and MexAB–OprM (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) efflux pumps are involved in resistance of Gram-negative bacteria to most of the natural products.