Abstract
BACKGROUND: Antiplasmodial drug discovery is significant especially from natural sources such as plant bacteria. This research aimed to determine antiplasmodial metabolites of Streptomyces spp. against Plasmodium falciparum 3D7 by using a metabolomics approach. METHODS: Streptomyces strains' growth curves, namely SUK 12 and SUK 48, were measured and P. falciparum 3D7 IC(50) values were calculated. Metabolomics analysis was conducted on both strains' mid-exponential and stationary phase extracts. RESULTS: The most successful antiplasmodial activity of SUK 12 and SUK 48 extracts shown to be at the stationary phase with IC(50) values of 0.8168 ng/mL and 0.1963 ng/mL, respectively. In contrast, the IC(50) value of chloroquine diphosphate (CQ) for antiplasmodial activity was 0.2812 ng/mL. The univariate analysis revealed that 854 metabolites and 14, 44 and three metabolites showed significant differences in terms of strain, fermentation phase, and their interactions. Orthogonal partial least square-discriminant analysis and S-loading plot putatively identified pavettine, aurantioclavine, and 4-butyldiphenylmethane as significant outliers from the stationary phase of SUK 48. For potential isolation, metabolomics approach may be used as a preliminary approach to rapidly track and identify the presence of antimalarial metabolites before any isolation and purification can be done.