Antibacterial Effect of <i>Ipyo-san</i> against Methicillin-Resistant <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i>

Yoon, Jae-hong; Choi, Yeun-ju; Jeong, Seung-hyun; Shin, Gil-cho

The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine > Volume 34(3); 2013 > Article

Article

The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine 2013;34(3): 278-288.

立效散의 Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus에 대한 항균활성에 관한 연구

윤재홍, 최연주, 정승현, 신길조

동국대학교 한의과대학 내과학교실

Antibacterial Effect of Ipyo-san against Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Jae-hong Yoon, Yeun-ju Choi, Seung-hyun Jeong, Gil-cho Shin

Dept. of Oriental Internal Medicine, Dong-Guk University

Correspondence

Gil-cho Shin ,Tel: 031-710-3710, Fax: 031-710-3780, Email: shingcho@naver.com

Published online: September 30, 2013.

ABSTRACT

Objectives:
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has a cephalosporin and beta-lactam antibiotic-resistant strains. MRSA is one of the major pathogens causing hospital infection and the isolation ratio of MRSA has gradually increased. Consequently, increased resistance to antibiotics is causing serious problems in the world. Therefore, there is a need to develop alternative antimicrobial drugs for the treatment of infectious diseases.

Methods :
The antibacterial activities of Ipyo-san were evaluated against 2 strains of MRSA and 1 standard Methicillin -susceptible staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) strain by using the disc diffusion method, minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) assay, colorimetric assay using MTT test, checkerboard dilution test and time-kill assay performed under dark.

Results:
The MIC of Ipyo-san water extract against S. aureus strains ranged from 1000 to 2,000 μg/ml, so we confirmed that it had a strong antibacterial effect. Also, the combinations of Ipyo-san water extract and conventional antibiotics exhibited improved inhibition of MRSA with synergy effect. We suggest that Ipyo-san water extract against MRSA has antibacterial activity so it has potential as alternatives to antibiotic agents. For the combination test, we used Triton X-100 (TX) and DCCD for measurement of membrane permeability and inhibitor of ATPase. As a result, antimicrobial activity of Ipyo-san water extract was affected by the cell membrane.

Conclusions:
We suggest that the Ipyo-san water extract lead the treatment of bacterial infection to solve the resistance and remaining side-effect problems that are the major weak points of traditional antibiotics.

Key words: Ipyo-san, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), antibacterial effect, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), fractional inhibitory concentration index (FICI)