Avaliação in vitro da atividade antimicrobiana e do potencial citotóxico do gel de Aloe Vera: uma discussão sobre o uso em queimaduras

Abstract

This is an experimental study whose objective was to evaluate the antimicrobial property and toxicity risk of Aloe vera gel and to discuss its topical use in burns. Therefore, A. vera leaves were collected in community vegetable gardens in the Palmas-TO city, and processed to obtain the gel, in order to mimic the popular use form of the plant in the treatment of burn injuries. The gel was divided into two testing groups, in natura (Group A) and lyophilized (Group B). The antimicrobial activity was performed by agar macrodilution and broth microdilution to determine minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), for microorganisms commonly identified in infected lesions of burned individuals. Erythrocyte osmotic fragility test (EOS) were performed to evaluate cytotoxicity. The experimental tests results suggest that Aloe vera grown in Palmas-TO has antimicrobial activity of bacteriostatic nature for S. aureus, E. cloacae, A. baumanii, P. aeuruginosa, E. Coli and C. albicans, both in the in natura and lyophilized form. Results obtained for K. pnemoniae differed from the other microorganisms tested, with antimicrobial activity only for lyophilized gel. As for cytotoxicity, there was no significant hemolysis rate (p <0,05), as well as cell membrane deformity, which showed a toxic risk in the use of the plant gel at the maximum concentrations tested 100% in natura and 20 mg / ml of lyophilized gel extract. Regarding gel popular use in natura in the treatment of burns, the evidences of this study corroborate for the safety of topical use. However, further studies of how absorption and metabolism occur should be performed.