Abstract
Lepidium sativum is commonly known as “fetto” in Ethiopia, and a popular herbal plant which is widely used in folk medicine. The objective of this study is to investigate the potential of three different crude solvent extracts from seed of Lepidium sativum (ethanol, methanol and chloroform) against human pathogenic bacterial strains: Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922), Klebsiella pneumoniae (ATCC-27736), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC-27853), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC-25923) and Shigella sonnie (ATCC-25931) using agar well diffusion assay, and the test results were compared with standard antibiotics. This study revealed that the ethanol and methanol extracts showed maximum antibacterial activity against E. coli (ATCC 25922) with zone of inhibition mean value of 22.63±0.7 mm. The methanol extract showed minimum antibacterial activity against P. aeruginosa (ATCC-27853) with zone of inhibition mean value of of 9±0.3 mm. Among the extracts, ethanol has a higher minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) with inhibition value ranges of 6.25 to 12.5 mg/ml than other solvents extract. The results suggest that ethanolic and methanolic extracts of L. sativum could be used for treatment of infectious diseases caused by E. coli and P. aeruginosa strains. Hence, further investigation of biochemical elements of the ethanolic and methanolic extracts and understanding of the genetic mechanisms of resistance will be beneficial. Key words: Antibacterial activity, extract, Lepidium sativum, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), zone of inhibition.
Highlights
Infectious diseases are major concern due to resistance of bacterial pathogens to the existing drugs or antibiotics
The water extract used as negative control did not exhibit antibacterial activity against all the tested organisms
Ethanol and methanol showed maximum zone of inhibition of 22.6 mm against E, coli (ATCC 25922), while the minimum zone of inhibition was obtained for P. aeruginosa (9 mm)
Summary
Infectious diseases are major concern due to resistance of bacterial pathogens to the existing drugs or antibiotics. Medicinal plants with identified antimicrobial properties have a significant role in the treatment of infectious diseases (Cowan, 1999). The challenge of microbial resistance is growing, and in the future the use of antimicrobial drugs is uncertain. To overcome this problem, there is need to study the genetic mechanism of resistance and develop novel drugs (Nascimento et al, 2000). Medicinal plants are the cheap and safe alternative sources for the prevention against antimicrobial infections (Pretorious and Watt, 2001; Sharif and Banik, 2006).
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