A PHYTOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS TO SUGGEST NEW APPLICATIONS OF ANTI-INFLAMMATORY PLANTS FROM THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
L.A.RICHTER, J. SALAZAR, AND E. RODRIGUEZ

Inflammation is a symptom of arthritis, common cold, and vaginal infection. Generations of Dominicans have used plants in traditional medicine to reduce inflammation, but there has been little scientific evidence to validate that the plants of Dominican folklore have anti-inflammatory activity. Confirming the medicinal value of local plants would expand the range of recognized treatments for inflammation. Three plants used to treat inflammation in the Dominican Republic, Eupatorium odoratum (Asteraceae), Isidorea pungens (Rubiaceae), and Pisonia aculeata (Nyctaginaceae) were tested for their bioactivity. Anti-microbial disk diffusion assays were performed against three strains of the fungus Candida albicans, the gram-positive bacteria, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus cereus, and Staphylococcus aureus, and the gram-negative bacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli. The leaves of E. odoratum and I. pungens strongly inhibited all three strains of C. albicans, the source of most vaginal inflammatory infections, but the P. aculeata did not demonstrate any bioactivity. Separation of the active extracts into polar and non-polar layers showed that the active compounds of E. odoratum were non-polar and the active compounds of I. pungens were polar. Thin-layer chromatography analyses revealed antioxidants, phenols, and terpenoids in both leaf extracts, and polyacetylenes and alkaloids in E. odoratum. Neither plant was found to be cytotoxic in a brine shrimp cytotoxicity assay, suggesting safe human consumption of both plant leaves. Further studies should be conducted to establish if the anti-microbial activity observed is linked to anti-inflammatory activity in these bioactive plants.