In vitro studies on the anti-infective properties of flower and fruit extracts of selected medicinal plants against enteropathogens

Abstract

The thesis entitled “In vitro studies on the anti-infective properties of flower and fruit extracts of selected medicinal plants against enteropathogens” was carried out in the Microbiology division of Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute, Palode, during 2018-2019 academic years.The objective of the study was Screening of medicinal plant extracts for anti infec-tive property against enteropathogens and identification of lead compounds, targeted efficacy testing of selected compounds against FtsZ proteins through in vitro and in silico approaches, demonstrating the effect of these compounds on virulence factors and bio-film formation of enteropathogens. Diarrhoeal diseases remain a leading cause of preventable death, especially among children under five in developing countries. Acute watery diarrhoea mainly affecting children of developing countries that results in dramatic dehy-dration and it is most dangerous in the very young. Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli or Vibrio cholerae are most common causative agent of acute watery diar-rhoea. Diarrhoea also cause huge economic burden on people of impoverished countries. There is need for need for novel anti-infective agents that can prevent disease and economic burden of diarrhoea. Developing countries are rich source of traditional knowledge and natural resources. These resources can be channel-ized to develop novel anti-diarrhoeal agents that can prevent emergence and dissemination of gastrointestinal pathogen including drug-resistant strains. Many diarrhoeal diseases are known to be treated with herbal remedies throughout the history of humankind. Even today, plant materials continue to play a major role in primary health care as therapeutic remedies in many devel-oping countries. For centuries, many secondary compounds of fruits are 75 found to have an outstanding role in medicine. Most of these com-pounds belong to a few families of substances such as alkaloids, terpenoids and phenolics. Fruits and flowers are ethno medically valuable products of a plant. They have been extensively used in folk and mod-ern medicine for treating various diseases. We have explored anti-infective activity of fruit and flower extract using mi-crobiological assays. Hot ethanol extracts exhibited antibacterial activity against gastrointestinal pathogens such as E. coli, V. cholera, E. faecalis, S. Typhi and S. aureus. It induced filamentation of Bacillus subtilis 168 which is an indication of cell division inhibition. Active compound can be used to devel-op novel anti-diarrhoeal agents.