Relationship of pathogens and diseases is as old as the history of mankind. Several pathogens such as bacteria and fungi are known to cause human ailments. These bacteria include Staphylococcus aureus,Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus subtilisas well as Salmonella typhi. Among them, Salmonella typhi causes two kinds of infections in humans including typhoid (enteric fever) as well as non-typhoidal gastroenteritis1.
Accordingly, Staphylococcus aureus cause illness from mild range requiring no treatment to severe and fatal infections by means of the ingestion of contaminated food as well as water2. While on the other hand, Escherichia coli is a non-spore forming bacteria that is usually found in raw meat, raw milk as well as contaminated food and vegetables. However, within this species, only four strains can cause life-threatening infections.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is challenging nosocomial pathogens which lead towards 10-15% of “nosocomial infections” globally3. Bacillus subtilis are Gram-positive, aerobic or facultatively anaerobic pathogenic bacteria and involve in vomiting, nausea, slower-onset diarrheal syndrome which can cause severe eyes, ears, wounds, urinary tract, respiratory tract as well as gastrointestinal tract infections4.
Conversely, Aspergillus niger is a mould fungus that causes “black mold” on certain fruits and it can lead towards “pneumonia” as well.
These pathogens can be treated by using conventional synthetic antibiotics. But, due to development of resistance in microbes against these medicines and their negative side effects, scientists have started to focus on natural products extracted from medicinal plants in order to treat pathogenic ailments.
Accordingly, a new research was designed in order to investigate the crude ethanol, n-hexane, chloroform, n-butanol and aqueous soluble extracts of South American plant “Vaccinium macrocarpon”for its antibacterial as well as anti-fungal activates against different Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens, as mentioned above5.
During this experiment, it was concluded that the extracts of ethno medicinal plants possess huge defensive potential against pathogenic bacteria and fungus. In general, the plants extracts were observed to be more active against Gram-negative pathogens as in comparison with Gram-positive pathogens.
Conclusively, the synergistic effects from the utilization of conventional medicine in combination with the plant extracts can pave a new direction for the effectual treatment of infectious diseases.
Key words: Gram-negative pathogens, nosocomial infections, conventional medicine, ethno medicinal plants, antifungal activates, Gram-positive pathogens, Vaccinium macrocarpon
References:
- McClelland, M., K.E. Sanderson, J. Spieth, S.W. Clifton and P. Latreille et al., 2001. Complete genome sequence of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium LT2. Nature, 413: 852-856.
- Ogston, A. 1881. Report upon micro-organisms in surgical diseases. Br. Med. J., 1(1054): 369-b2-375.
- Blanc, D.S., C. Petignat, B. Janin, J. Bille and P. Francioli, 1998. Frequency and molecular diversity of Pseudomonas aeruginosa upon admission and during hospitalization: A prospective epidemiologic study. Clin. Microbiol. Infect., 4: 242-247.
- Philip S. Brachman, 1996. Epidemiology. In: Medical Microbiology, Baron. S. (Ed.)., University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston Texas.
- Shabana Noreen, Hira Saqib, Ahmad Mukhtar, Umar Shafiq, Muhammad Saad Khan, Tazien Rashid and Ali Qasim, 2018. Discovery of Antibacterial and Antifungal Activities of South American Vaccinium macrocarpon Fruit: An Ethnomedicinal Plant. Asian J. Biol. Sci., 11: 130-137.
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