Fitoterapia. 2002 Jul; 73(4): 300-4.

The genus Hypericum--a valuable resource of anti-Staphylococcal leads.

Gibbons S, Ohlendorf B, Johnsen I.

Centre for Pharmacognosy and Phytotherapy, The School of Pharmacy, University of London, 29-39 Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AX, UK. simon.gibbons@ulsop.ac.uk

In the present study, extracts of 34 species and varieties of the genus Hypericum were screened for activity against a clinical isolate of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which in addition possessed a multidrug efflux mechanism conferring a high level of resistance to therapeutically useful antibiotics. Thirty-three of the 34 chloroform extracts showed significant activity in a disk diffusion assay, and five extracts had minimum inhibitory concentrations of 64 microg/ml, indicating that this genus has great potential to yield compounds with potent activity against multidrug-resistant bacteria.