DETERMINATION OF ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF SOME IMPORTANT SPICES

Wide range of plant extracts are used for medicinal purposes as they are very cheap, efficient, harmless and do not cause any side effects. Spices are parts of different plants and they add special aroma and taste to the food preparations. The aim of the study was to determine the antimicrobial activity of some important naturally grown spices against gram positive and gram negative pathogenic bacteria. Antibacterial activity of the spices was tested against gram positive bacteria Bacillus pumilus, Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus and gram negative bacteria Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi and Pseudomonas aeruginosa using aqueous, ethanolic, methanolic and liquid nutrient extracts. Among all the extracts tested alcoholic extracts of Cardamom (Elettaria cardamom), clove (Eugenia caryophyllus) and lemongrass (Cymbopogoncitratus) showed maximum antimicrobial activity against gram negative bacteria while alcoholic extract of Cardamom (Elettaria cardamom) and lemongrass (Cymbopogoncitratus) showed maximum activity against gram positive bacteria. All the spices tested in this study proved that they have antibacterial activity and the maximum activity index (1.39) was exhibited by the ethanol extract of cardamom against E.coli.