Albizia tree - promising antifungal agent
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FPRDI chemists recently found the bark of the Albizia philippinensis tree, locally known as “unik”, to be a potential antifungal agent.
“In our bid to develop eco-friendly disinfectants and preservatives, we screened the chemical components of two species of the Albizia tree (A. philippinensis and A. lebbekoides or “kariskis”) and studied their effect on three types of fungi and one type of bacteria,” said Ms. Mariluz SP. Dionglay, Chief of the Chemistry and Biotechnology Section, Material Science Division.
“We found that A. philippinensis contains four phytochemicals that are known to have bioactivity against microorganisms -flavonoids, tannins, alkaloids and saponins. These chemicals were also present in A. lebbekoides, except alkaloids,”she continued.
“Our experiments showed thatas little as 4 milligrams of A. Philippinensis bark extract inhibited the growth of the fungi Trametesversicolor and Trichodermaaureoviride, while A. lebbekoides did not. This is an encouraging result and we plan to do further experiments on the former to see how we can optimally use it as an antimicrobial agent.” (Rizalina K. Araral, 12 November 2014)#
