Manoj Kumar et al, Int. Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Medicine (IJPSM), Vol.6 Issue. 1, January- 2021, pg. 51-74 ISSN: 2519-9889 Impact Factor: 3.426 © 2021, IJPSM All Rights Reserved, www.ijpsm.com 51 Exploring an Indian Herb Sphaeranthus indicus for Antimicrobial Efficacy against Helicobacter pylori and Effect of Combination Therapy against Drug Resistant Human Pathogens Manoj Kumar 1 ; Prachi Goyal 2 ; Zafar Mehmood 3 ; Prateek Sharma 4 ; Rajashree Das 4 ; Kunal Das 5 ; Shweta Mahant 4 1 PhD Student, Department of Microbiology, Maharaj Vinayak Global University, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India 2 Assistant Professor, Maharaj Vinayak Global University, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India 3 Department of Microbiology, The Himalaya Drug Company, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India 4 Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India 5 HOD and Consultant, Gastrointestinal Sciences, Manipal Hospital, Delhi, India DOI: 10.47760/ijpsm.2021.v06i01.005 Corresponding Author: Dr Prachi Goyal, PhD Assistant Professor, Maharaj Vinayak Global University, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India E-mail: prachigoyal458@gmail.com Phone Number: +91 96803 09450 Financial disclosure: Nil Conflict of interest: None Abstract: Among the various opportunistic infections, those caused by Helicobacter pylori, a human Opportunistic pathogen, is attracting much attention. Relatedly, increasing rates of antibiotic-resistant H. pylori strains have been found, and therefore, the search for new eradication strategies and effective antibiotic therapies has become an issue of crucial importance. Hence, research effort is focused on exploring an Indian Herb as sources of anti-H. pylori agents. The antibacterial activity of flower extract of Sphaeranthus indicus has been evaluated against clinical isolates of H. pylori. The plant also has been found to be effective against a variety of human pathogens. Initial antibacterial screening was made by the disc diffusion method. The results presented in this work demonstrated that among the plant preparation analyzed, the flower extract of S. indicus was capable of inhibiting the in vitro growth of H. pylori. New sources of antimicrobial drugs are now needed to be identified and improved strategy should be developed to combat multidrug resistance problem in pathogenic bacteria. Plant extract and phytochemicals demonstrating antimicrobial action needs to be exploited for their synergistic action between extracts with antibiotics to exploit it in modern phytomedicine and combinational therapy. In the present study in addition to H. pylori the alcoholic extracts of Sphaeranthus indicus was screened for their antimicrobial efficacy against a wide variety of drug resistant bacteria and yeast. The extracts showed promising action against one or more drug resistant bacteria as well as against Candida albicans with MIC ranged from 0.5 mg/ml to 4.62 mg/ml. The combination of the extract showed synergistic action.