Seasonal variation in antimicrobial and phytochemical properties of frequently used medicinal bulbous plants from South Africa

The growing popularity of traditional medicine and the unrestricted collection of medicinal plants from the wild have put many of the slow growing bulbous plant species at the risk of over-exploitation and extinction in South Africa. This study was aimed at comparing the phytochemical composition and biological (antibacterial and anticandidal) activities of bulb and leaf extracts of Tulbaghia violacea, Hypoxis hemerocallidea, Drimia robusta and Merwilla plumbea between spring, summer, autumn and winter seasons, with the view of promoting the use of leaves, as a conservation strategy. Antibacterial and anticandidal activities of petroleum ether (PE), dichloromethane (DCM), 80% ethanol and water extracts of bulbs and leaves were tested against Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria and the fungus Candida albicans using the microdilution bioassay. Spectrophotometric methods were used to evaluate saponin and phenolic compositions for the four seasons. Leaf and bulb extracts exhibited comparable anticandidal activity (MIC < 1 mg/ml) in all the plant species in all seasons. Only ethanol and water extracts of H. hemerocallidea corms (autumn and winter) showed correspondingly good fungicidal activity amongst the bulbs tested. Antibacterial activity was fairly comparable between bulbs and leaves with at least one extract of each plant species showing some good MIC values in most of the seasons. The best antimicrobial activities were recorded in winter and autumn seasons, with MIC values as low as 0.2 mg/ml in the DCM bulb extracts of T. violacea (winter) against K. pneumoniae and S. aureus. The amounts of total phenolic compounds in all plant samples were generally higher in spring compared to the other seasons. Condensed tannin, gallotannin and flavonoid levels, depending on the sample, were either higher in spring or winter except for H. hemerocallidea (corm) which had higher gallotannin levels in autumn. Total saponin levels were higher in winter in all plant samples. Although variation was observed in the phytochemical concentrations between the bulbs and leaves of each plant species, their antimicrobial activities were fairly comparable. Leaves may be used as substitutes for bulbs in the treatment of bacterial and fungal ailments.