In vitro and In Silico Screening of Antibacterial Compounds from Camellia sinensis Against Bacillus cereus and Escherichia coli

Abstract In the present study, phytochemical profiling of Camellia sinensis methanolic extract was carried out using liquid chromatography (LC-UV) analysis. Then the antibacterial potential of this extract was evaluated in vitro against Bacillus cereus ATCC 11778 and Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 using the conventional agar well diffusion method. While the compounds identified by LC-UV were tested for their potential DNA-gyrase inhibitory and drug-likeness properties using computer-aided methods. LC-UV analysis revealed the presence of four major compounds namely: Caffeic acid, (-)-Epicatechin, Syringic acid, and (-)-Epigallocatechin gallate. The extract showed powerful antibacterial activity at the concentration of 5000 µg/ml with an inhibitory zone of 25.38 ± 2.75 mm, and 22.78 ± 1.22 mm against B. cereus ATCC 11778, and E. coli ATCC 25922 respectively. (-)-Epigallocatechin gallate exhibited the best docking score (-8.1 kcal mol-1) outperforming the other phenolic compounds but also Clorobiocin and Novobiocin. According to their molecular parameters, all tested compounds revealed an important drug-likeness property by obeying Lipinski's rule of five and the Ghose filter. This analysis revealed that C. Sinensis has strong antibacterial activity due to its high phenolic component content, and it may be considered a promising option for natural plant sources of antibacterial drugs with high value.