Antibacterial activity of the extracts from the fruit rinds of Garcinia cowa and Garcinia pedunculata against food borne pathogens and spoilage bacteria P.S. Negi, G.K. Jayaprakasha, B.S. Jena * Human Resource Development Department, Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore 570020, India Received 31 August 2007; received in revised form 12 February 2008; accepted 15 February 2008 Abstract The crude hexane and chloroform extracts from the fruit rinds of Garcinia cowa and Garcinia pedunculata were studied for their antibacterial activity against some foodborne pathogens and spoilage bacteria such as Bacillus cereus, Bacillus coagulans, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of the extracts determined by the agar dilution method were ranging from 15 to 500 mg/ml and 300 to 1250 mg/ml for G. cowa and G. pedunculata, respectively. However, the hexane and chloroform extracts from the fruit rinds of G. cowa exhibited marked inhibitory effect against all the test organisms and were more effective than that of G. pedunculata extracts. The antibacterial activity of all the extracts was more pronounced against the tested Gram-positive bacteria than the tested Gram-negative bacterium. Furthermore, this study is the first report on the in vitro antibacterial activity of extracts from the fruit rinds of G. cowa and G. pedunculata. Ó 2008 Swiss Society of Food Science and Technology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Garcinia cowa; Garcinia pedunculata; Antibacterial activity 1. Introduction Garcinia (Family: Guttiferae) is a large genus of polyga- mous trees or shrubs, distributed in the tropical Asia, Africa and Polynesia, which consists of 180 species, out of which about 30 species are indigenous to India. Garcinia cowa and Garcinia pedunculata are grown in Northeastern parts of India and Andaman Islands. In Assam, both the species of Garcinia are often cultivated in homesteads for their acid fruits and the sun-dried slices of the fruits are used for culinary purposes and used to treat dysentery (The Wealth of India, 1956). However, the fruits of G. cowa and G. pedunculata are underutilized. Small and complex molecules have been isolated from differ- ent parts of the various species of Garcinia, which include xanthones and their derivatives (Bennet & Lee, 1989; Rama Rao, Venkataswamy, & Yemul, 1980) exhibiting a wide range of biological and pharmacological activities such as antimicro- bial, antioxidant, antitumour-promoting, cytotoxic, etc. (Adegoke, Kumar, Sambaiah, & Lokesh, 1998; Asano, Chiba, Tada, & Yoshii, 1996; Bakana et al., 1987; Iinuma, Tosa, Tanaka, Asai, et al., 1996; Iinuma, Tosa, Tanaka, Kanamaru, et al., 1996; Mackeen et al., 2000; Minami et al., 1994; Minami, Kuwayama, Yoshizawa, & Fukuyama, 1996; Minami et al., 1995). Crude extracts as well as partially purified compounds from different parts of some species of Garcinia plants have shown potential antibacterial activities. A polyiso- prenylated benzophenone known as garcinol isolated from stem bark of G. huillensis has been shown to possess chemo- therapeutical activity against Gram-positive and Gram- negative cocci but was inactive against Gram-negative enteric bacilli (Bakana et al., 1987). Alpha-mangostin, rubraxanthone and xanthochymol isolated from G. mangostana, G. diocia and G. subelliptica, respectively, showed strong antibacterial activity against both methicillin-resistant and methicillin- sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (Iinuma, Tosa, Tanaka, Asai, * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ91 821 2514 310; fax: þ91 821 2517 233. E-mail address: bsjena@yahoo.com (B.S. Jena). 0023-6438/$34.00 Ó 2008 Swiss Society of Food Science and Technology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.lwt.2008.02.009 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com LWT - Food Science and Technology 41 (2008) 1857e1861 www.elsevier.com/locate/lwt