article · Molecules
Acidified ethanolic extracts of red onion scales, an agricultural food waste, demonstrate potent antibacterial and antibiofilm activity against virulent bacterial pathogens. Laboratory evaluations showed that the crude extract and its specific fractions, enriched in anthocyanins and flavonoids, inhibit bacteria including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Acinetobacter baumannii, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The flavonoid-rich fraction demonstrated the highest efficacy against MRSA, significantly eradicating biofilm formation. When formulated into hydrogels and tested in a rat model of vaginal MRSA colonisation, the crude extract reduced bacterial loads by nearly three logs compared to negative controls, closely approaching the performance of vancomycin. Histopathological analysis supported these reductions. Chemical standardisation linked the potent antibiofilm properties primarily to quercetin content, indicating that agricultural onion waste can be repurposed into functional antimicrobial formulations.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections present persistent clinical challenges, particularly when protected within bacterial biofilms that resist conventional treatments. Demonstrating that red onion agricultural waste possesses strong antibiofilm properties provides a dual benefit: discovering alternative therapeutic options against multidrug-resistant pathogens while simultaneously repurposing food industry by-products into high-value medical materials.
The findings could enable topical antimicrobial treatments, such as hydrogels for managing resistant bacterial infections and vaginal colonisation. Potential users include pharmaceutical developers and wound-care product manufacturers seeking plant-derived alternatives to traditional antibiotics. The research represents early-stage to applied animal testing, having demonstrated efficacy in vitro and in a rat model, but it still requires formal clinical safety and efficacy trials before real-world adoption.
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Red onion wastes (ROW) are valuable sources of bioactive metabolites with promising antimicrobial effects. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections are a growing risk in hospitals and communities. This study aims to investigate the in vitro and in vivo antibiofilm activities of the acidified ethanolic extract of red onion scales (RO-T) and its fractions against an MRSA vaginal colonization model. The RO-T extract, as well as its anthocyanin-rich fraction (RO-P) and flavonoid-rich fraction (RO-S), recorded a promising antibacterial activity against highly virulent strains of bacteria (MRSA, Acinetobacter baumannii, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa). RO-S showed the highest antibacterial activity (MBC of 0.33 ± 0.11 mg/mL) against MRSA USA300 and significantly eradicated its biofilm formation with an IC50 of 0.003. Using a rat model, in vivo assessment on all samples, which were formulated as a hydrogel, revealed a significant reduction of MRSA bacterial load recovered from an infected vagina compared to that of the negative control group (NCG). RO-T extract and vancomycin groups recorded the highest antibacterial activity with a bacterial load 2.998 and 3.358 logs lower than the NCG, respectively. The histopathological investigation confirmed our findings. RO-T and RO-S were standardized for their quercetin content. Finally, ROW offers a new potent antibiofilm agent mostly due to its high quercetin content.
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DOI: 10.3390/molecules28010355
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