Antioxidant, antimicrobial and anticancer activity of the lichens Cladonia furcata, Lecanora atra and Lecanora muralis

BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Research Article

Branislav R Ranković¹  Marijana M Kosanić¹  Tatjana P Stanojković² 

[1] Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Kragujevac, Radoja Domanovića 12, Kragujevac, Serbia;Institute of Oncology and Radiology of Serbia, Pasterova 14, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia;

关键词: Lichens;    Antioxidant activity;    Antimicrobial activity;    Anticancer activity;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6882-11-97

 received in 2011-07-04, accepted in 2011-10-20,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe aim of this study is to investigate in vitro antioxidant, antimicrobial and anticancer activity of the acetone extracts of the lichens Cladonia furcata, Lecanora atra and Lecanora muralis.MethodsAntioxidant activity was evaluated by five separate methods: free radical scavenging, superoxide anion radical scavenging, reducing power, determination of total phenolic compounds and determination of total flavonoid content. The antimicrobial activity was estimated by determination of the minimal inhibitory concentration by the broth microdilution method against six species of bacteria and ten species of fungi. Anticancer activity was tested against FemX (human melanoma) and LS174 (human colon carcinoma) cell lines using MTT method.ResultsOf the lichens tested, Lecanora atra had largest free radical scavenging activity (94.7% inhibition), which was greater than the standard antioxidants. Moreover, the tested extracts had effective reducing power and superoxide anion radical scavenging. The strong relationships between total phenolic and flavonoid contents and the antioxidant effect of tested extracts were observed. Extract of Cladonia furcata was the most active antimicrobial agent with minimum inhibitory concentration values ranging from 0.78 to 25 mg/mL. All extracts were found to be strong anticancer activity toward both cell lines with IC50 values ranging from 8.51 to 40.22 μg/mL.ConclusionsThe present study shows that tested lichen extracts demonstrated a strong antioxidant, antimicrobial and anticancer effects. That suggest that lichens may be used as as possible natural antioxidant, antimicrobial and anticancer agents to control various human, animal and plant diseases.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Ranković et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011