Date of Award:

8-2012

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Biological Engineering

Committee Chair(s)

Charles D. Miller

Committee

Charles D. Miller

Committee

Ronald C. Sims

Committee

Marie K. Walsh

Abstract

Tuberculosis is a stubborn and lethal infectious disease. The world-wide tuberculosis surveillance reports that the new TB cases ranges from seven to eight million per year and deaths ranges from 1.3 to 1.6 million every year. The treatment of tuberculosis mainly depends on antituberculosis drugs, such as isoniazid, rifampin, pyrazinamide and ethambutol. However, drug-resistance acquisition is an inevitable process during tuberculosis treatment. Today, multi-drug resistant and the extensively drug-resistant TB cases have been widely reported around the world. Thus, the discovery of novel antituberculosis drugs is essential to effective TB treatment. Hypericum perforatum, also called St. John’s Wort, is a perennial herb. This research investigated St. John’s Wort’s potential use as an antituberculosis drug. In this study, we demonstrated the effectiveness of St. John’s wort methanol extract and three main bioactive constitutes against mycobacterial strains, including Mycobacterial tuberculosis, which is the pathogenic bacteria causing tuberculosis. We also investigated the effect of surfactants, which are commonly used in pharmaceutical and food industry, on the activity of St. John’s. The results of this study offer substantial information on the antituberculosis potential of St. John’s Wort.

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This work made publicly available electronically on September 20, 2012.

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