The discovery of mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.) leaves extracts exhibiting anti-quorum sensing properties

Quorum sensing (QS) refers to the bacterial cell-to-cell communication mechanism that coordinates different behaviours as the population has reached a high cell density. Previous research has shown that higher plants can produce compounds that can attenuate the bacterial pathogenicity by mimicking the chemical structures of the bacterial QS signalling molecules. As an example, our group has previously showed that malabaricone C extracted from the Malaysian Myristica cinnamomea attenuate the QS-mediated virulence determinants in the pathogenic bacteria. This study aimed to determine the anti-QS activities of the mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.) leaves extracts. By using the bioassay guided isolation, the sample was found to inhibit the violacein production in Chromobacterium violaceum CV026 as well as inhibit the selected virulence determinants of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA01. Our data validate the use of higher plants as rich source of anti-QS compounds that can attenuate the bacteria virulence which may be valuable source for novel drug discovery. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first documentation reporting the anti-QS properties of the G. mangostana L., which bears edible fruits, are the favourite fruits by the locals.