Abstract

Antimicrobial properties of Indian spices

Author(s): Sankar Kumar Dey, Debdulal Banerjee, Pathin Kumar Nandi, Sourav Chattopadhyay, Krishnendu Bikash Karmakar

The present study was designed to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of both aqueous and methanol extracts of five Indian spices, namely Allium sativum, Curcuma longa, Zingiber officinale, Caryophyllus aromaticus and Cinnamomum tamala.All of these have been traditionally used in folk medicine and are still used in the alternative systemof health care.Antimicrobial activity of these commonly used Indian spices was tested against six strains of both Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria, namely Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, Vibrio cholerae, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Susceptibility of the microorganisms to the extracts of these plants was compared. The result showed that, the methanol extracts of spices exhibited higher activity against the tested organisms rather than aqueous extract of those spices.Minimuminhibitory concentration (MIC) of themethanol extract of selected spices was studied. The results showed that the extracts of cloves and garlic had good inhibitory action than the extract of turmeric and ginger.