In-vitro antibacterial activity of garlic cloves and ginger rhizomes on food-borne pathogens

Abstract

See, stats, and : http : / / www . researchgate . net / publication / 275625098 In - vitro and - borne ARTICLE DOI : 10 . 14419 / ijbas . v2i4 . 1347 CITATION 1 READS 24 2 : Alloysius Federal 18 SEE Uzochukwu Gregory , Uturu 11 SEE All - text , letting . Available : Alloysius Retrieved : 23 International Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences , 2 (4) (2013) 387 - 392 ©Science Publishing Corporation www . sciencepubco . com / index . php / IJBAS Abstract The antibacterial activity of ginger (Zingiber officinale) and garlic (Allium sativum) extracts was investigated on selected food borne pathogens using Agar well diffusion method . The organisms are Escherichia coli , Staphylococcus aureus , Salmonella species and Bacillus cereus . Two different extracts (cold water and ethanol) were obtained from the garlic bulbs and ginger rhizomes . The results indicated that the different bacteria species demonstrated different levels of sensitivity to the extracts . The cold water extract of the ginger produced maximum activity against Salmonella species (13 . 10mm) , Staphylococcus aureus (9 . 67mm) , Bacillus cereus (6 . 67mm) and no inhibition on Escherichia coli (0 . 0mm) . The ethanolic extract produced maximum activity against Staphylococcus aureus (13 . 05mm) , Salmonella species (10 . 09mm) and no inhibition on Escherichia coli (0 . 0mm) and Bacillus cereus (0 . 0mm) . The extracts of garlic (cold water and ethanolic) produced the maximum inhibitory effect towards Staphylococcus aureus (38 . 67mm and 31 . 00mm) , Bacillus cereus (36 . 67mm and 30 . 21mm) respectively . The cold water extract produced an inhibition of 26 . 00mm on E . coli and 27 . 33mm on Salmonella species while the ethanolic extract on E . coli (20 . 10mm) and Salmonella species (19 . 32mm) . The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of cold water and ethanol extracts of ginger were respectively 75% and 50% (S . aureus) , 50% and 25% (Salmonella species) , 100% and resistant (B . cereus) while E . coli was resistant to both extracts . The MIC (%) of the cold water and ethanol extract of garlic were respectively 25% and 75% (B . cereus) , 25% and 50% (S . aureus) and 75% for both extracts on E . coli and Salmonella species respectively . The result revealed that garlic extracts were more effective against the test organisms than ginger extracts . However both plants can serve as potential inhibitors of food pathogens and can increase the shelf life of foods if properly incorporated .