A Systematic Review on Antimicrobial and Antiparasitic Activity of Eurycoma longifolia Jack (Tongkat Ali)

Table 2

Characteristics of the included articles.

Study	Assay	Microorganism tested	Plant parts	Types of extract	Antimicrobial assay	Exposure times in the antimicrobial test	Control groups	Sample size	Main results
[11]	Effects of Eurycoma Longifolia Jack (Tongkat Ali) alcoholic root extract against oral pathogens	Candida albicans and Streptococcus mutans	Root	Ethanol	Agar disk diffusion and broth microdilution test	24 h	Nystatin, ampicillin		Ethanol extracts of E. longifolia Jack root displayed a positive antibacterial effect on S. mutans and a positive antifungal effect on C. albicans
[12]	Antiplasmodial studies of Eurycoma longifolia Jack using the lactate dehydrogenase assay of Plasmodium falciparum	Plasmodium falciparum	Root	Ethanol, diethyl ether and n-butanol	Lactate dehydrogenase method	72 h	Untreated medium		Quassinoids isolated from E. longifolia showed potential antimalarial properties against in vitro culture of chloroquine-resistant P. falciparum
[13]	Antibacterial studies on in vivo plant parts of medicinally important Eurycoma longifolia (Tongkat Ali)	Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Shigella flexneri, and Bacillus subtilis	Roots, leaves, branches, seeds, bark, and stem core	Methanol	Agar disk diffusion assay	24 h	Chloramphenicol		The result indicated that the most effective antibacterial agent is the extracted compound from the roots of Eurycoma longifolia on Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853, Bacillus subtilis (CDR), Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, and Shigella flexneri ATCC 12022.
[14]	In vitro antibacterial activity of Eurycoma longifolia Jack (Tongkat Ali) root extract	Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhi	Root	Ethanol	Agar disk diffusion and broth microdilution test	24 h	Erythromycin and ciprofloxacin		The ethanolic extract of E. longifolia Jack root extract showed positive results against Gram-positive bacteria (S. aureus and B. cereus) and Gram-negative (S. typhi). B. cereus and S. typhi showed inhibition zone values higher than the positive control values. However, E. coli and P. aeruginosa did not show any inhibition by the ethanol-based extract.
[15]	Antifungal activity of Eurycoma longifolia jack (Tongkat Ali) root extract	Candida albicans and Aspergillus fumigatus	Root	Ethanol	Agar disk diffusion assay and broth microdilution method test	48 h	Nystatin		The ethanolic extract of E. longifolia Jack root showed positive antifungal activity against C. albicans and A. fumigatus
[16]	Antibacterial activity of Eurycoma longifolia Jack: a Malaysian medicinal plant	Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, Micrococcus luteus, Escherichia coli, salmonella typhi, Proteus vulgaris, and Serratia marcescens	Leaves, stem, and root	Methanol, ethanol, acetone and water	Agar well diffusion method	24 h	Tetracycline and chloramphenicol		The alcoholic and acetone extracts of the leaves and stem extracts were active on both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria except against 2 strains of Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli and salmonella typhi). The root extracts had no antibacterial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria tested. Aqueous leaf extract showed antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Serratia marcescens.
[17]	Tongkat Ali (Eurycoma longifolia): a possible therapeutic candidate against Blastocystis sp.	Blastocystis sp.	Roots	Crude aqueous, ethyl acetate, and water	Viable cell count	72 h	Untreated medium		Based on the screening process, among all the extracts, Tongkat Ali exhibited the highest antiprotozoal activity at 1.0 mg/mL. Between the water and ethyl acetate fractions of Tongkat Ali, the ethyl acetate fraction exhibited a slightly higher percentage of antiprotozoal activity at 1.0 mg/mL across subtypes ST1 (94.9%), ST3 (95.1%), and ST5 (94.3%). When tested with allopathic drugs at the same concentration, MTZ exhibited the highest antiprotozoal activity across subtypes ST1 (95.8%), ST3 (93.4%), and ST5 (90.8%).
[18]	Screening of selected indigenous plants of Cambodia for antiplasmodial activity	Chloroquine-resistant Plasmodium falciparum strain	Roots, stem, and bark	Aqueous, methanol and dichloromethane	Flow cytometry	48 h	Chloroquine		A very high antiplasmodial activity was observed for E. longifolia with IC50 values of <3 mg/mL. Tongkat Ali bark with CH2Cl2 is the most efficient extract showing the most increased antiplasmodial activity against W2.
[19]	In vitro antitumour promoting and antiparasitic activities of the quassinoids from Eurycoma longifolia, a medicinal plant in Southeast Asia	Schistosomes of Schistosoma japonicum and chloroquine-resistant Plasmodium falciparum strain	Leaves (quassinoids)	Ethanol	Viable cell count	24 h	Praziquantel		Compounds 1, 3, and 5 showed significantly; inhibitory effects on adult schistosome movement (IM) and egg-laying (EL) of S. japonicum at 200 mg/mL as compared with those of control experiments using only DMSO. However, the antischistosomal effect is weaker between the three compounds as compared to the control drug at the concentration of 20 mg/mL.
(Kavitha, Noordin, Chan, et al., 2012)	In vitro anti-Toxoplasma gondii activity of root extract/fractions of Eurycoma longifolia Jack	Toxoplasma gondii	Root	Methanol	Micro slide tubes test	24 h	Clindamycin		After 36 h of exposure to the E. longifolia fraction, the host Vero cells showed no visible intracellular parasite and no remarkable morphological changes. TAF 355 and TAF 401 fractions are the most efficient anti-Toxoplasma gondii effects.
[20]	Real-time anti-Toxoplasma gondii activity of an active fraction of Eurycoma longifolia root studied by in situ scanning and transmission electron microscopy	Toxoplasma gondii	Root	Methanol	Electron microscopy observation	36 h	Clindamycin		The significant antiparasitic activity shown by the TAF355 and TAF401 active fractions of E. longifolia. The active fractions from E. longifolia designated as TAF 355 and TAF 401 have potent and selective antiproliferative activity against T. gondii tachyzoites.
[21]	Phytochemical screening and antimicrobial activity of root and stem extracts of wild Eurycoma longifolia Jack (Tongkat Ali)	A. niger, Escherichia coli, Salmonella Virchow, P. aeruginosa, B. cereus, and S. aureus	Root and stem	Petroleum ether, chloroform,; ethyl acetate, acetone and methanol	Disk diffusion assay	24 h	Ampicillin		All the extracts exhibited dose-dependent antimicrobial activity. However, the highest antibacterial activity was observed against Gram-positive bacteria by both stem and root extracts. Nevertheless, stem extracts were more potent than root extracts against Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus. Merely, ethyl acetate extract of the stem showed moderate activity against Gram-negative bacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and high activity against fungus, Aspergillus niger.
[22]	Cytotoxic and antimalarial constituents from the roots of Eurycoma longifolia	P. falciparum clones W2 and D6		Methanol	Biological antimalarial assays	Not stated	Mefloquine and chroquine		Compounds 57 and 58 displayed potent antimalarial activity against the resistant Plasmodium falciparum. Eurycomanone (57) and pasakbumin-B (58) exhibited marginal antimalarial activity against both the W2 and D6 P. falciparum clones.
[23]	Comparative antimicrobial studies on plant species known as “pasak bumi’: Eurycoma longifolia Jack, Rennelia elliptica Korth. And Trivalvaria macrophylla Miq. (version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations)	Candida albicans, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus mutans, and streptococcus sobrinus	Root	Ethanol	Agar well diffusion method	24 h	Chloramphenicol		The highest activity index (AI) was found in the E. longifolia (0.96 at 1000 μg concentration) against selected pathogens.
[24]	Pasakbumin-A controls the growth of mycobacterium tuberculosis by enhancing the autophagy and production of antibacterial mediators in mouse macrophages	Mycobacterium tuberculosis		Water	Lactate dehydrogenase method	72 h	Rifampicin		Pasakbumin-A alone controls intracellular Mtb growth by enhancing the production of NO and TNF-α in macrophages and protects against host cell death during Mtb infection. However, data suggested that the combination of pasakbumin-A with an anti-TB drug (rifampicin) effectively suppressed intracellular Mtb growth by promoting the production of proinflammatory cytokine and blocking the production of anti-inflammatory cytokine in macrophages.
[25]	Effect of Eurycoma longifolia extracts on the glutathione level in plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocytes in vitro.	Chloroquine-resistant Plasmodium falciparum strain	Root	Methanol	Growth inhibition assay	36 h	Untreated medium		About 95% to 100% growth inhibition of P. falciparum-infected erythrocyte was observed when treated with TA164 and BSO at 16 μg/mL and 64 μg/ml, respectively. TA164 fails to suppress the GSH content of enriched trophozoite-infected erythrocyte as much as buthionine sulphoximine.
[26]	Eurycoma longifolia extract-artemisinin combination: parasitemia suppression of Plasmodium yoelii-infected mice.	Plasmodium yoelii	Root	Methanol	Viable cell count	96 h	Artemisinin		At 10 mg/kg, parasitemia of P. yoelii-infected mice was suppressed to 25 percent as compared to control mice, while at 30 mg/kg and 60 mg/kg, parasitemia was significantly suppressed to 41 percent and 51 percent, respectively () using TA164. These data showed a more significant effect of parasitemia suppression with TA164 than with artemisinin drug alone.
[27]	The effect of Eurycoma longifolia Jack (Tongkat Ali) root extract on salivary S. mutans, lactobacillus and Candida albicans isolated from high-risk caries adult patients	S. mutans, Lactobacillus, and Candida albicans	Root	Ethanol	Disk diffusion assay and broth dilution method	72 h	Chlorhexidine, ampicillin and nystatin		Disk diffusion assay showed positive zones of inhibition for all test microorganisms with S. mutans, Lactobacillus, and C. albicans exhibiting zones of inhibition of , , and , respectively. For minimum inhibitory concentration, the test microorganisms were tested at concentration of 250 mg/mL, 125 mg/mL, 62.5 mg/mL, 31.3 mg/mL, and 0 mg/mL. The minimum inhibitory concentration showed that MIC of S. mutans was at 62.5 mg/mL, Lactobacillus at 125 mg/mL, and C. albicans at 31.3 mg/mL.
[28]	Antiplasmodial effects of Brucea javanica (L.) Merr. and Eurycoma longifolia jack extracts and their combination with chloroquine and quinine on Plasmodium falciparum in culture	Plasmodium falciparum	Root	Methanol-ethanol, ethanol, ethyl acetate, ethyl alcohol, and distilled water	Checkerboard technique	24 h	Chloroquine and quinine		Antiplasmodial activity of E. longifolia with methanol-ethanol extract showed higher activities than the other solvent extract after comparison has been made.
[29]	Antibacterial potential of Malaysian ethnomedicinal plants against methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)	Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA)	Leaves	Methanol	Microdilution method	22 h	Vancomycin and ciprofloxacin		MIC and MBC values showed >800 mg/mL, which is considered inactive against tested microorganisms.