Exposure to solar UV radiation (UVR) is an environmental and health hazard causing several diseases. Several natural products showed various degrees of protection from UVR, but there has been no comparative study to examine their efficacy. Here, a simple assay has been developed to compare the ability of various natural compounds and commercial sunscreens in protecting bacterial cells from UVR. Dietary Apigenin and synthetic Apigenin, Zerumbone, Resveratrol, and Curcumin were used and their efficacy in protecting bacterial cells from UVR was compared. Various concentrations of compounds and sunscreens were plated on petri dishes containing bacteria, the petri dishes were exposed to UVR, bacterial growth was determined, and this growth was compared with that of a bacterial plate without UVR. The results demonstrated that all of the natural compounds protect bacterial cells from UVR-induced cell death even though the levels of protection differ. Additionally, these compounds protect bacterial cell death equally or better than sunscreens. Surprisingly, both synthetic and dietary Apigenin are most effective in protection compared to other compounds and sunscreens even at a 1000-fold lower concentration. These results strongly support that Apigenin has the highest potential for developing natural compound based drugs for protection from UVR-induced diseases.
