Antimicrobial activity of peels and physicochemical properties of juice prepared from indigenous citrus fruits of Sylhet region, Bangladesh

Abstract

Scientists are indeed fascinated by the pharmacologically important chemicals found in medicinal plants. Citrus fruits possess several curing agents for the prevention of diseases. Therefore, experiments were carried out to test the antibacterial activity of methanolic extracts of peels from various locally available citrus fruits such as citron (Citrus medica), satkora (Citrus macroptera) and adajamir (Citrus assamensis) against Bacillus spp. and E. coli using the disc diffusion method. Different physicochemical characteristics of fruit juice were also determined. Methanolic extract of satkora peel had the highest antibacterial activity of 2.2 and 2.6 cm while adajamir had the lowest antibacterial activity of 1.7 and 2.1 cm as ZOI against Bacillus spp. and E. coli, respectively. In the case of pH and total soluble solids (TSS), the three citrus varieties showed a small variation where satkora showed the highest total phenolic content (TPC), vitamin C content, and antioxidant activity than the others. Citrus fruits can be exploited as antibacterial and antioxidant ingredients in food and nutraceuticals, according to the findings of this study.