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Volume 5, Issue 6

Evidence for some antimicrobial properties of English churchyard lichens Open Access

Abstract

The emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria has driven the need for novel antibiotics. Our investigations have focussed on lichens as they naturally produce a wide range of unique and very effective defence chemicals. The aim of this study was to evaluate some of the antimicrobial properties of ten common British churchyard lichens. The lichen material was sampled from ten species, namely , , , , subsp. , , , and . Crude acetone extracts of these lichens were tested against six bacteria ( and ) and two fungi ( and ) by the disc-diffusion susceptibility test method. Extracts of and showed clear inhibition of the Gram-positive bacteria tested (). and extracts also inhibited the dermatophyte fungi tested. The sample tested here was the only extract that showed activity against any of the Gram-negative bacteria tested; it showed inhibition of . Overall, our results showed that crude extracts of and had the most potent antimicrobial activity of all the extracts tested. Our results are in general agreement with published findings elsewhere. The activity of the margin sample being different from that of the main colony material was an interesting and new finding reported here for the first time.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): antimicrobial , Diploicia canescens , lichens , Pertusaria amara and secondary metabolites
Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • Cranfield University
    • Principal Award Recipient: JA Taylor
© 2023 The Authors
  • This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.
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2023-06-20
2026-03-10

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Evidence for some antimicrobial properties of English churchyard lichens
Access Microbiology 5, 000536.v4 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1099/acmi.0.000536.v4
/content/journal/acmi/10.1099/acmi.0.000536.v4
/content/journal/acmi/10.1099/acmi.0.000536.v4
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