PUNICA GRANATUM RIND EXTRACT: ANTIBIOTIC POTENTIATOR AND EFFLUX PUMP INHIBITOR OF MULTIDRUG RESISTANT KLEBSIELLA PNEUMONIAE CLINICAL ISOLATES

Abstract

ABSTRACTObjective: With a rise in multidrug resistant (MDR) bacterial isolates, search for antibiotics or compounds that could act synergistically with themis a significant area of research. Efflux-mediated resistance, in particular, is a great hurdle that needs to be overcome. In an effort to identify suchsynergistic compounds and potential efflux pump inhibitors (EPI), we analyzed the rind of Punica granatum (pomegranate) against MDR clinicalKlebsiella pneumoniae isolates.Methods: Sequential fractionation of P. granatum rind ethanol (PGR) extract was carried out to obtain hexane, butanol and water fractions.Antibacterial activity of the plant extracts was confirmed, and synergistic interaction with antibiotics was determined by the checkerboard assay. Gaschromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis was performed to identify the phytochemical constituents of the hexane extract. To study EPIactivity of the extracts, norfloxacin accumulation assay was carried out.Results: PGR ethanol extract was found to have synergistic activity with ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, ceftazidime, cefoxitin, meropenem, and gentamicinresulting in fold decrease of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) ranging from 2 to 32 fold. The hexane fraction was found to have maximumsynergistic activity resulting in a 32-fold reduction of ciprofloxacin MIC followed by butanol and water fractions. The PGR ethanol extract was alsofound to have efflux inhibition activity by the norfloxacin accumulation assay. Of the sequential fractions, the butanol fraction had maximum effluxinhibition activity.Conclusion: Therefore, our study shows that PGR extract can potentiate the effect of antibiotics on MDR bacteria, and the mode of action is likely tobe due to EPI.Keywords: Punica granatum rind, Pomegranate, Synergy with antibiotics, Multidrug resistant, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Efflux pump inhibition.