Antibacterial Activity of Salvia Miltiorrhiza against Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

丹參의 methicillin 내성 황색포도구균에 대한 효과

Objectives : Gram-positive bacteria have became increasing resistant to antibacterial agents, and hence multi-drug-resistant bacterial pathogens are now a major problem in clinical medicine. There is, therefore, a need for new antibacterial agents. In the course of our screening program for potent antibacterial agent from medicinal plants, the extract of Salvia miltiorrhiza (S. miltiorrhiza) showed antibacterial activity against methcillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and antibiotic-resistant S. aureus. Methods : S. miltiorrhiza was extracted with 80$\%$ EtOH. The extract was suspended in H2O and fractionated successively with hexane chloroform, ethyl acetate, and n-buthanol. The chloroform fraction, which showed the highest antibacterial activity(MICs, 78㎍/ml) against MRSA, was chromatographed on a silica gel column and recycling prep-LC to give the pure antibacterial component. Results and Conclusions : The second fraction among the chloroform soluble portion of an aqueous EtOH extract of S. miltiorrhiza root showed outstanding antibacterial activity against MRSA and antibiotic-resistant S. aureus compared to the other fraction. An active compound was isolated from the second fraction using silica gel column chromatoraphy and recycling prep-LC. Based on these data together with the IH-, 13C-NMR, mass and mp, the active compounds were identified tanshinone Ⅰ, dehydrotanshinone Ⅰ and cryptotanshinone. Among tanshinones, cryptotanshinone and dihydrotanshinone Ⅰ MICs against MRSA and antibiotics-resistant S. aureus were 12.5, 12.5 and 6.3㎍/ml, respectively.