Inhibitory and Bactericidal Effects of Artichoke (Cynara scolymus) on Pathogenic Strains and Their Comparison with Antibiotics In Vitro

The use of plant-derived antimicrobial agents can play a beneficial role in the control of human diseases. In this regard, this study was performed with the purpose of assessing the antimicrobial activity of artichoke on five human pathogenic species, including Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Salmonella typhi, and Candida albicans.
In this experimental research, agar well method was used to assess the diameter of inhibition zone, pour plate method to measure the susceptibility of pathogenic strains against extract, and three methods including broth macrodilution, broth microdilution, and triphenyltetrazolium chloride indicator, were used to measure minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum bactericidal concentration.
In this study, the maximum diameter of inhibition zone of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of artichoke in a concentration of 800 mg/ml was related to the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus and the yeast Candida albicans, and the minimum zone diameter was reported for Salmonella typhi. The results of MIC of the aqueous extract of artichoke for Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, and Candida albicans were 256, 32, 64, 64 and 32mg/ml, respectively, and the MIC of the ethanolic extract were 128, 32, 16, 16, and 16mg/ml, respectively. The minimum bactericidal concentration of artichoke extracts was equal to or greater than the minimum inhibitory concentration.
The results of this study indicated that artichoke can be considered as a valuable plant to combat infectious diseases, since it showed significant antimicrobial effects, especially against Grampositive bacteria and the yeast Candida albicans.