Identification of Novel Bioactive Compound Derived from <i>Rheum officinalis</i> against <i>Campylobacter jejuni</i> NCTC11168

Abstract

Gastric diseases are increasing with the infection of <i>Campylobacter jejuni.</i> Late stages of infection lead to peptic ulcer and gastric carcinoma. <i>C. jejuni</i> infects people within different stages of their life, especially childhood, causing severe diarrhea; it infects around two-thirds of the world population. Due to bacterial resistance against standard antibiotic, a new strategy is needed to impede <i>Campylobacter</i> infections. Plants provide highly varied structures with antimicrobial use which are unlikely to be synthesized in laboratories. A special feature of higher plants is their ability to produce a great number of organic chemicals of high structural diversity, the so-called secondary metabolites. Twenty plants were screened to detect their antibacterial activities. Screening results showed that <i>Rheum officinalis</i> was the most efficient against <i>C. jejuni</i>. Fractionation pattern was obtained by column chromatography, while the purity test was done by thin-layer chromatography (TLC). The chemical composition of bioactive compound was characterized using GC-MS, nuclear magnetic resonance, and infrared analysis. Minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the purified compound was 31.25 <i>µ</i>g/ml. Cytotoxicity assay on Vero cells was evaluated to be 497 <i>µ</i>g/ml. Furthermore, the purified bioactive compound activated human lymphocytes <i>in vitro</i>. The data presented here show that <i>Rheum officinalis</i> could potentially be used in modern applications aimed at the treatment or prevention of foodborne diseases.