Abstract

Medicinal plants have been used since the beginning of civilization, and even today, it is still widely used mainly due to the lack of necessary information on their physical and chemical components. Cordia verbenacea DC is a typical plant of the Brazilian coast, popularly known as "grass whaling" and is mainly used as antimicrobial agents, anti - inflammatory and analgesic. This study was conducted in order to identify the phytochemical analysis of the main secondary metabolites, and also to evaluate the antibacterial effect and modulates bacterial resistance to aminoglycoside the hexane fraction of the methanol extract of C. verbenacea (HFMECV) against the standards and resistant strains of Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. The phytochemical screening showed the presence of compounds such as tannins flobatenics, flavones, flavonols, xanthones, flavononls, leucoanthocyanidins, catechins, flavones and terpenes. Regarding antibacterial activity, the fraction showed MIC ≥ 1024 μg/ml, being a value not clinically relevant, but when combined with the sub-inhibitory minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) the aminoglycosides antibiotics showed synergism. With these results, we conclude that the HFMECV presented itself as an excellent modulator of bacterial resistance to aminoglycosides, thereby indicating a possibility that through further research there could arise a new herbal that work with modulating function and antibacterial.

Key words: Aminoglycosides, phytochemical analysis, antibacterial activity, MIC, modulation.