Comparative anti-microbial study of different parts of Opuntia littoralis against specific human pathogens

Abstract

An emergency need was felt to discover and search for new antibiotics, because of emergence of multi drug resistant strains of bacteria and appearance of species with reduced susceptibility to already existing antibiotics. The presence of microorganisms has been exposed by human beings since immemorial time of human history and the thought about medicinal herbs and shrubs that they have the ability of healing potential has been proved in many research works even today. By using water, ethyl alcohol, acetone and ethyl acetate, four types of extracts were prepared from Opuntia littoralis extract. All the extracts were tested against ten human pathogens. Agar disc diffusion method was applied for antibacterial activity. It was observed that extracts of fruits showed high activity than the extracts of leaves. The highest activity was observed for Ervinia carotovora (20-28 mm), A. tumefaciens (16-23 mm) for fruit sample in acetone extract followed by A. tumefaciens (20-25 mm in each conc) of both sample in ethyl acetate extracts. The Opuntia species proved high antimicrobial activities. Comparatively, the zone of inhibition was high for fruit sample than stem.