Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology Commons^™

An Ethnobotanical Approach To Finding Antimicrobial Compounds In Wooly Blue Curls (Trichostema Lanatum) Using A Kirby-Bauer Disc Diffusion Assay, Matthew C. Fleming, P. Matthew Joyner

Featured Research

Plants can be an important source of creativity and production of new drugs. In this study, extracts of wooly blue curls (Trichostema lanatum) were made using DMSO and tested for antimicrobial activity on a panel of bacteria commonly found in separate ecological niches. Wooly blue curls (WBC) was chosen due to its being recorded as a strong disinfectant by the Chumash people. It was found that WBC does exhibit antimicrobial activity against gram positive bacteria and not against gram negative bacteria. However, gram negative bacteria with reduced drug efflux function became susceptible to the WBC extract.