EVALUATION OF ANTIBIOFILM ACTIVITY OF THE LATEX EXTRACTED FROM HIMATANTHUS DRASTICUS (MART.) PLUMEL (JANAGUBA)

The secondary metabolites present in plants often have antibiofilmactivity, this property attributed to plant compounds is of great importance, given the formation of biofilms in biomaterials, which further boosts the search for natural substances capable of minimizing this type of formation. Himatanthusdrasticus(Mart.) Plumel is a tree species popularly known as janaguba, this is found in areas of caatinga, cerrado, rupestrian fields and rainforest. Community empirical knowledge attributes to this plant species therapeutic action against tumors, hemorrhoids, respiratory tract infections, digestive tract and urogenital tract. Considering the reduced number of scientific findings on the biological activities of H. drasticus latex, the objective of the present study was to verify the antibiofilm activity of its latex. The latex was extracted from H. drasticus specimens, where a small area of the vegetal bark (5x30cm) was removed, later the latex was dissolved in water and lyophilized. For the microbiological assays, the ATCC standards of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus were cultured in BHI broth for 24 hours at 37 ?C. The assay was performed with flat-bottomed 96 well plates, and the latex extracted from H. drasticus and bacterial suspensions were added to the BHI broth. Negative Control (NC) was used as broth BHI and Positive Control (PC), the PA01 strain of P. aeruginosa as this strain is indicated as a positive control for biofilm assays. The plates were then incubated at 37 ?C for 24 hours. After this period, the absorbance was read in an ELISA reader with wavelength of 570 nm, then the samples were classified. The antibiofilm activity of the latex extracted from H. drasticus was classified as non-adherent on the species P. aeruginosaand S. aureus. Thus, the study revealed that H. drasticus latex has a potential antibiofilmaction, however, additional studies should be carried out in order to evaluate other aspects associated with the biological activities performed by this plant species.