Antimicrobial properties of Lawsonia inermis syn. Lawsonia alba in vivo and in vitro

People in rural areas use plant materials to cure various diseases, because most of the plants contain components of therapeutic value. Among the important medicinal plants included Lawsonia inermis, syn. L. alba (henna). Scientific research on henna plant has proven many beneficial properties in henna. The henna plant extract has a variety of biological activities such as anticomplementary, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and antimicrobial activities. Chemical compound in henna is lawsone (C10H6 O3 ), the active ingredient and a naturally occurring naphthoquinone. Plant tissue culture is the process of plant cell growth outside an intact plant. Research in the area of plant tissue culture technology has resulted in the production of many pharmaceutical substances for new therapeutics. The aim of this paper was to investigate possible antimicrobial activities of henna and to compare the activities in in vivo (normal) henna plant and in vitro (tissue culture) henna plant. Tissue culture studies of henna were carried out by using different concentrations and combinations of hormones. Then, the antibacterial activities of ethanolic extracts of henna in vivo and in vitro, on some bacteria and fungal strains, were screened using the modified agar well diffusion method. In this work Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus cereus and Eschericia coli were used as bacterial strains and fungal strains Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger, Trichoderma sp. and Fusarium sp. were used. Data were expressed as mean±standard deviation. Research on in vivo and in vitro plants were compared because previous studies on plant tissue cultures showed that it has potential as a supplement to traditional medicine, especially in the industrial production of bioactive compounds from plants