The antimicrobial and antiviral activity of polyphenols from almond skin. - GreenMedInfo Summary
The Antimicrobial and Antiviral Activity of Polyphenols from Almond (L.) Skin.
Nutrients. 2019 Oct 3 ;11(10). Epub 2019 Oct 3. PMID: 31623329
Maria Musarra-Pizzo
Due to their antimicrobial and antiviral activity potential in vitro, polyphenols are gaining a lot of attention from the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. A novel antiviral and antimicrobial approach could be based on the use of polyphenols obtained from natural sources. Here, we tested the antibacterial and antiviral effect of a mix of polyphenols present in natural almond skin (NS MIX). The antimicrobial potential was evaluated against the standard American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) and clinical strains of, including methicillin-resistant (MRSA) strains, by minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). Herpes simplex virus type I was used for the antiviral assessment of NS MIX by plaque assay. Furthermore, we evaluated the expression of viral cascade antigens. NS MIX exhibited antimicrobial (MIC values of 0.31-1.25 mg/ml) and antiviral activity (decrease in the viral titer **<0.01, and viral DNA accumulation *<0.05) againstand HSV-1, respectively. Amongst the isolated compounds, the aglycones epicatechin and catechin showed the greatest activity againstATCC 6538P (MIC values of 0.078-0.15 and 0.15 mg/ml, respectively), but were not active against all the other strains. These results could be used to develop novel products for topical use.