Determination of the Antimycobacterial Activity of the Fractions and Isolated Compounds from the Roots of Galenia Africana L. Var. Africana

The escalation of infections caused by M. tuberculosis, particularly those caused by MDR-TB strains is of considerable global concern. Since no new antituberculosis drugs have become available during the last forty years, there is obvious need for new and effective anti-tubercular drugs. There are reports of phytochemical analysis of essential oils, glycolipids, sesquiterpenoids, triterpenoids terpenes, steroids, tannins and triterpenoid as having potential antimycobacterial activity (Rivero-Cruz et al., 2005, Redo et al., 2006, Mann et al., 2008,). Previous studies of isolated compounds such as naphthoquinones (diospyrin, isodiospyrin, mamegakinone, 7-methyljuglone, neodiospyrin and shinanolone) were found to have antimycobacterial properties (Lall, 2005). Prenylated xanthones (αand β-Mangostins and garcinoneβ) isolated from Garcinia mangostana, were found to have strong antimycobacterial inhibitory effect (Suksamrarn et al., 2003).