In vitro and in silico evaluation of some plant extracts and phytocompounds against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria

The spread of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative (MDR) bacteria is a global public health problem, as infections caused by MDR Gram-negative bacteria are difficult to treat. New antibiotic agents need to be developed to overcome this problem, and phytochemicals show promise at this point. In this study, methanol extracts were prepared from cinnamon, thyme, nettle, white tea, rosehip, and antibacterial activity of the methanol extracts was studied against two MDR Gram-Negative bacteria (K. pneumoniae and A. baumannii) by broth microdilution method. The MICs of methanol extracts of cinnamon, rosehip, thyme, white tea for A. baumannii were found as 0.015125 g/ml, 0.07825 g/ml, 0.030625 g/ml, 0.00796875 g/ml, respectively. It was found that only cinnamon methanol extract had antibacterial activity in the used extract concentrations against K. pneumoniae and the MIC value was 0.0605 g/ml. The effects of plant methanol extract with antibacterial activity and imipenem combinations were studied in vitro using the checkerboard method. The FIC Indexes were obtained from the checkerboard results and it was observed that the combination of methanol extract and imipenem showed an antagonistic or additive/indifferent effect but not a synergistic effect. We evaluated the binding affinity of epigallocatechin 3-gallate, quercetin, cinnamaldehyde, carvacrol, and thymol phytocompounds using in silico methods, which are well known as a phytocompounds in white tea, cinnamon, thyme, nettle, and rosehip and have antibacterial activities. The results suggested that these phytocompounds should be supported with in vivo and in vitro experiments to investigate their potential for being inhibitor candidates.