phytochemical composition, antibacterial, and antibiofilm activity of malva sylvestris against human pathogenic bacteria

Background: considering the increased rate of microbial resistance to antibiotics and chemical side effects of antibiotics, there is a need for an alternative antimicrobial agent with fewer complications. medicinal plants are rich resources of phytochemical compounds with antibacterial activity that could fight off this problem.objectives: the aim of this research was to investigate the chemical composition, antimicrobial, and antibiofilm properties of malva sylvestris on some pathogenic bacteria.methods: antibacterial effect of the extract was assessed by the well diffusion and broth microdilution methods against staphylococcus aureus, enterococcus faecalis, pseudomonas aeruginosa, klebsiella pneumoniae, and escherichia coli. the anti-biofilm property of the extract was also examined using the crystal violet assay. finally, the chemical constituents and phenolic compounds of the extract were determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (gc-ms) and high-performance liquid chromatography (hplc), respectively.results: the methanolic extract of m. sylvestris showed antimicrobial activity against all tested gram-negative and gram-positive strains by the agar well diffusion method. the minimum inhibitory concentration (mic) of the extract ranged from 21.9 ± 0.1 to 51.9 ± 0.5 mg/ml against the tested microorganisms. in addition, the minimum bactericidal concentration (mbc) spanned from 43.7 ± 0.1 to 85.8 ± 0.3 mg/ml. the biofilm inhibitory concentration (bic50) of the extract was found to be 40 - 87 mg/ml against the tested bacteria. analysis of the extract by gc-ms indicated that the most abundant compounds were 1-heptacosanol (38.41%), 17-pentatriacontene (19.78%), and 6,9,12,15-docosatetraenoic acid, methyl ester (8.08%). high-performance liquid chromatography confirmed the presence of apigenin (6.84 ppm) and salicylic acid (1.5 ppm) as phenolic compounds in m. sylvestris methanolic extract.conclusions: the results of this study represent the high potency of m. sylvestris extract as a source of biologically-active compounds for the development of future phytotherapeutic products with antibacterial and antibiofilm activity.