Antimicrobial screening of some indian spices

Abstract

In India, spices have been traditionally used since ancient times, for the preservation of food products as they have been reported to have antiseptic and disinfectant properties. In this respect, a preliminary screening for antimicrobial activities of 35 different Indian spices has been carried out. Of the spices surveyed, the results indicate that clove, cinnamon, bishop's weed, chilli, horse raddish, cumin, tamarind, black cumin, pomegranate seeds, nutmeg, garlic, onion, tejpat, cellary, cambodge, have potent antimicrobial activities against the test organisms Bacillus subtilis (ATCC 6633), Escherichia coli (ATCC 10536) and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (ATCC 9763). The results also establish the traditional use of spices as food preservatives, disinfectants and antiseptics. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Antimicrobial activity of some of the south-Indian spices against serotypes of Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes and Aeromonas hydrophila

“…The results agree with observations of previous researchers (1,7,10,16,21). Antibacterial activity of garlic powder on E. coli O157:H7 was also reported (20).…”

Experimental Study for Evaluation of Antimicrobial Activity of the Aqueous Garlic Extract in Treatment of Arthritis in Rabbits

“…A differential effect of the garlic extract on Salmonella typhimurium was also reflected in the cell growth curve performed in this study. Results agreed with observations of previous researchers (Elnima et al, 1983;Kumar et al, 1998;Arora and Kaur, 1999;De et al, 1999). However, garlic extract was unable to inhibit growth under 20% concentration.…”

Garlic natural health products exhibit variable constituent levels and antimicrobial activity againstNeisseria gonorrhoeae, Staphylococcus aureus andEnterococcus faecalis

“…The higher activity observed as compared to our study is likely due to the testing of pure GO activity against E. faecalis. Another report found that crude fresh garlic extracts tested against the Gram-positive bacteria Bacillus subtilis produced MICs of 100 mg/mL, similar to our MICs of 10-100 mg/mL against the Gram-positives S. aureus and E. faecalis (De et al, 1999).…”