Antimicrobial Properties of Native American Herbal Tea: Hypericum hypericoides
- UNCP Author/Contributor (non-UNCP co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Cheyenne Lee (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Pembroke (UNCP )
- Web Site: http://www.uncp.edu/academics/library
- Advisor
- Conner Sandefur
Abstract: Patients with obesity and type II diabetes are characterized by an altered gut microbiome. Antimicrobial agents may be a possible avenue to restore normal gut microbiota. These experiments were designed to test Hypericum hypericiodes or St. John the Worker, a traditional medicine of the Lumbee Native American tribe of North Carolina, for antimicrobial properties on thirteen different bodily bacteria. Experiments from Spring 2018 suggested that plant-paste made from Hypericum hypericoides has antibiotic properties. For further experiments, the thirteen bacteria were streaked over three Mueller-Hinton agar plates per bacteria, and each plate was divided into four sections with three different antibiotics and one disc of water per plate as a negative control. The third plate per bacteria had two different antibiotics, one water disc, and 75% plant-paste to test Hypericum hypericoides antibiotic properties against seven standard antibiotics. The plant-pastes for all experiments were made with approximate concentrations of 100% and 75% with 0.5g of plant to 0.5 mL of water and 0.375g of plant to 0.5 mL of water respectively. Experiments on Mueller-Hinton agar plates instead of bacteria specific growth media illustrated inhibition on three of five bacteria. Since both experiments yields antibiotic inhibition to some degree, we also performed the same tests done on the Mueller-Hinton agar plates on Tryptic Soy Agar and Luria Broth Agar plates to compare the antibiotic standard inhibition zones to the inhibition results seen from the plant-pastes in Spring 2018. The results suggest growth inhibition of five of the thirteen studied species: Corynebacterium xerosis, Micrococcus lateus, Bacillus subtillis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Neisseria sicca. Our experimental data suggest a possible avenue of therapy by using traditional medicines to target altered microbiomes in obesity and type II diabetes.
Antimicrobial Properties of Native American Herbal Tea: Hypericum hypericoides
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