MECHANISM OF ACTION OF SOME ANTIMICROBIAL PREPARATIONS OF PLANT ORIGIN

There are several antimicrobial (sanguiritrin, eucalimin, donelvin) and antiviral (aipisarin, flakosid, helepin D) drugs of plant origin that are currently in use in medical practice [1, 2]. In particular, sanguiritrin and its components (sanguinarine and heleritrin) offer a wide spectrum of biological activity. Besides the antimicrobial activity, sanguiritrin produces an anticholinesterase effect [I] and influences neuroomuscular transmission [3]. It was also reported that sanguiritrin produced a cytotoxic action [4], intercalated into DNA [5], and inhibited the activity of some enzymes in mammals [ 6 9]. Sanguiritrin and heleritrin produce decoupiing action on the oxidative phosphorylation [3, 5, I0]. Sanguiritrin and alpisarin were shown to inhibit the activity of bacterial nuclease [11]. However, up to now the cellular and molecular mechanisms of action of eucalimin, donelvin, flakosid, and helepin D remained unknown. This paper presents the results of investigations of the cytotoxicity and ionophore activity of sanguiritrin, euealimin, donelvin, flakosid, and helepin D, and their influence on the mitochondrial RESPIRATION and phosphorylation.