Evaluación de la actividad antimicrobiana de extractos del látex de Sande (Brosimum utile) contra Enterococcus faecalis y Escherichia coli

Abstract

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics represents one of the main challenges in global public health, which has driven research into new sources of bioactive compounds with antimicrobial activity, especially from natural products used in traditional medicine. The latex of Brosimum utile, known as Sande milk, has been used by indigenous communities to treat gastrointestinal conditions and ulcers and as a gastric protector; however, its antimicrobial potential has been little studied. The objective of this study was to obtain different extracts from Brosimum utile latex and evaluate their antimicrobial activity against Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 29212 and Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, bacterial strains of clinical interest due to their relationship with gastrointestinal infections. Six extracts were obtained using different extraction methods such as ethanol maceration, Soxhlet extraction, acid-base extraction, as well as pure latex evaluated at different concentrations and in its pure form. Antimicrobial activity was analyzed using the disk diffusion method (Kirby-Bauer) and subsequently with the 96-well microdilution assay. The results showed no inhibition halo using the Kirby- Bauer assay, which could be attributed to the viscosity of the latex and its limited diffusion on solid media. However, the microdilution method allowed the identification of bacterial growth inhibition effects in several of the extracts analyzed. The ethanolic extract (E5) exhibited inhibitory behavior against both bacterial strains evaluated, indicating that the bioactive compounds responsible for conferring this antimicrobial activity may be associated with secondary metabolites soluble in organic solvents, such as flavonoids and phenolic