In Vitro Antimicrobial Screening of Momordica charantia extracts against Multidrug-Resistant Bacterial Strains

SUMBUL REHMAN,HINA QAMAR,TOUSEEF HUSSAIN,SAIMUL DEHAR

doi:10.36547/ae.2020.2.2.17-21

Abstract

A comparative study for screening the antibiotic potential of Momordica charantia successive extracts in vitro against eleven multidrug-resistant bacterial strains. Momordica charantia fresh fruit was extracted successively in different solvents in the order of increasing polarity from hexane to aqueous followed by screening against eleven antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains including both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains using Kirby-Bauer’s disk diffusion and agar well diffusion method. A study on Staphylococcus epidermidis and Corynebacterium xerosis are reported for the first time. Significant inhibitory activity was noted against most of the resistant human pathogenic strains. Findings reported that ethyl acetate fraction shows the highest zone of inhibition while hexane, petroleum ether, chloroform and aqueous extract were almost resistant. The antibacterial efficacy of Momordica charantia is found to be significant. It’s also concluded that the controversy on the antibacterial activity of Momordica charantia fruit extract in different solvents is based on several factors like the solvent used for extraction, plant part, concentration, method of extraction, etc. M. charantia extracts could be used as an alternative anti-microbial to replace antibiotics for treating a broad spectrum of multidrug-resistant bacterial diseases.

Highlights

In the 21st century, antimicrobial resistance is the greatest challenge to public health and threatens modern medicine where common infections could become more deadly
The findings show that all Gram-positive and Gram-negative clinical strains are resistant against antibiotics, namely, Cefixime (10μg), Amoxyclav (10μg), Cefotaxime (10μg) and Methicillin (10μg)
Petroleum ether, chloroform and aqueous extract are almost resistant to all eleven bacterial strains while ethyl acetate, acetone, n-butanol, the ethanolic and methanolic extract showed significant activity against all bacterial strains

Summary

Introduction

In the 21st century, antimicrobial resistance is the greatest challenge to public health and threatens modern medicine where common infections could become more deadly. The discovery of antibiotics was one of the most important developments in medicine but misuse and overuse of antibiotics to treat viral infections, use of broad-spectrum antibiotics and as growth promoters in animals leads to emergence of bacteria that have evolved resistance to multiple antibiotics and gave birth to superbugs and multidrug-resistant microbes in the environment (Sharma V.K, 2016). The persistence of these antibiotic-resistant microbes creates increased opportunities to transfer the resistance genes to associated susceptible bacteria and eventually lead to entry into the human food chain (Founou, et al, 2016).

Methods

Results

Conclusion