Antimicrobial activity of five herbal extracts against multi drug resistant (MDR) strains of bacteria and fungus of clinical origin.

Rosina Khan,Anis Ahmad Ahmad,Mohd Akram,Barira Islam,S Manazir Ali,Mashiatullah Siddiqui,Shazi Shakil,Asad U Khan

doi:10.3390/molecules14020586

Abstract

Antimicrobial activities of the crude ethanolic extracts of five plants were screened against multidrug resistant (MDR) strains of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Candida albicans. ATCC strains of Streptococcus mutans, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, Streptococcus bovis, Pseudimonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhimurium, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Candida albicans were also tested. The strains that showed resistance against the maximum number of antibiotics tested were selected for an antibacterial assay. The MDR strains were sensitive to the antimicrobial activity of Acacia nilotica, Syzygium aromaticum and Cinnamum zeylanicum, whereas they exhibited strong resistance to the extracts of Terminalia arjuna and Eucalyptus globulus. Community-acquired infections showed higher sensitivity than the nosocomial infections against these extracts. The most potent antimicrobial plant was A. nilotica (MIC range 9.75-313µg/ml), whereas other crude plant extracts studied in this report were found to exhibit higher MIC values than A. nilotica against community acquired as well as nosocomial infection. This study concludes that A. nilotica, C. zeylanicum and S. aromaticum can be used against multidrug resistant microbes causing nosocomial and community acquired infections.

Highlights

Antibiotics provide the main basis for the therapy of microbial infections.Since the discovery of these antibiotics and their uses as chemotherapeutic agents there was a belief in the medical fraternity that this would lead to the eventual eradication of infectious diseases
We have tested the ethanolic extracts of five plants for their antimicrobial activity against multi-drug resistant strains
ATCC strains of Gram-negative bacteria, Gram-positive bacteria and yeast species were used as control sensitive strains

Summary

Introduction

Antibiotics provide the main basis for the therapy of microbial (bacterial and fungal) infections.Since the discovery of these antibiotics and their uses as chemotherapeutic agents there was a belief in the medical fraternity that this would lead to the eventual eradication of infectious diseases. Overuse of antibiotics has become the major factor for the emergence and dissemination of multi-drug resistant strains of several groups of microorganisms [1]. The worldwide emergence of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Haemophilus and many other ß-lactamase producers has become a major therapeutic problem. Multi-drug resistant strains of E. coli and K. pneumoniae are widely distributed in hospitals and are increasingly being isolated from community acquired infections [2, 3]. The incidence of nosocomial candidemia has risen sharply in the last decade [5]. All this has resulted in severe consequences including increased cost of medicines and mortality of patients

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