KNOWING LICHEN WHICH IS POTENTIAL AS ANTIBACTERIAL

Lichen can be found on tree bark that looks like patches of white or green, can also be found on rocks, soil surfaces and others. Not many people know him even being ruled out. In fact, not many people know him because it's not interesting. Though crust is a unique plant, a symbiotic organism between fungi from the Ascomycetes or Basidiomycetes group, and algae from the Cyanobacteria or Chlorophyceae group. Said to be unique because the body of a plant that is formed from the results of symbiosis is different from its symbionts, the results of the secondary metabolites produced are also different from the secondary metabolites of the symbionts.

Lichen turned out to have benefits. According to researchers lichen states lichen has potential as an antibacterial. This is based on the number of secondary metabolite compounds produced by lichen. Secondary metabolite compounds consist of many classes including amino acid derivatives, pulvinic acid, peptides, sugar alcohols, terpenoids, steroids, carotenoids, aliphatic acids, monocyclic phenols, depsides, dibenzofurans, anthakinons, xanthones, usnic acids and other compounds (Huneck , 1999). Lichen has the nature of an antibiotic that has traditionally been done for a long time, thus attracting the attention of scientists. These antibiotic properties include antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral properties. The ability of lichen as an antibiotic is determined by the presence of acidic compounds, namely usnic acid. Usic acid in lichen is a broad-spectrum antibiotic and is the most commonly known lichen content. Lichen also has other types of acids which also have antibiotic activity, especially as an antibacterial (Septiana, 2011).

Other examples of ethanol extracts of five types of lichen are Flavoparmelia caperata, Heterodermia leucomela, Everniastrum cirrhatum, Rimelia reticulata, and Stereocaulon foliolosum able to inhibit the growth of the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain H37Rv and H37Ra that causes TB (Gupta et al. 2007). In clinical application, the bactericidal activity of crude extracts from lichen Ramalina pacifica against 20 strains of clinical pathogens isolated from different sources of infection namely P. aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumonia, Salmonella typhi, S. paratyphi, E. coli, and S. aureus showed positive results in inhibiting the growth of these bacteria (Hoskeri et al., 2010).

This shows that lichen has great potential as an antibacterial agent. Where indicated by the ability to inhibit bacterial growth. Therefore further research needs to be done, in addition to knowing the type of lichen also has potential as an antibacterial.

Reference

Huneck S, 1999. The Significance of Lichens and Their Metabolites. Nat. Wiss. 86(12):559-570.

Gupta, V.K., M.P. Darokar, D. Saikia, A. Pal, A. Fatima, S.P.S. Khanuja. 2007. Antimycobacterial Activity of Lichens. Pharm. Biol. 45(3): 200-204

Hoskeri, H.J., V. Krishna, C. Amruthavalli. 2010. Effects of Extracts from Lichen Ramalina pacifica Against Clinically Infectious Bacteria. Researcher. 2(3): 81-85

Septiana, E. 2011. Potensi Lichen Sebagai Sumber bahan Obat: Suatu Kajian Pustaka. Jurnal Biologi XV (1) : 1 – 5