Antibacterial Activity of Mimusops elengi Leaf, Seed and Bark Extracts Alone and in Combination with Antibiotics against Human Pathogenic Bacteria Bijayanta Sircar and Shyamapada Mandal * Laboratory of Microbiology and Experimental Medicine, Department of Zoology, University of Gour Banga, Malda, India * Corresponding author: Shyamapada Mandal, Laboratory of Microbiology and Experimental Medicine, Department of Zoology, University of Gour Banga, Malda, India, Tel: +91 9831279239; E-mail: samtropmed@gmail.com Rec date: October 13, 2016; Acc date: November 01, 2016; Pub date: November 08, 2016 Copyright: © 2016 Sircar B, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Abstract Aims: The current study determines the antibacterial activity of ‘Bakul’ (Mimusops elengi) leaf, seed and bark extracts against gram-negative clinical bacterial isolates as well as the standard bacterial strains. Methods: The disc diffusion method was followed to determine the antibacterial activity of M. elengi leaf, seed and bark extracts against the clinical isolates of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus vulgaris and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The antibiotic susceptibility of the bacterial isolates was determined by disc diffusion. Results: The concentration dependent activity of the extracts against the bacteria was recorded with zone diameter of inhibition 7-21 mm. The extracts in combination with antibiotics (cefpodoxime, gentamycin and ciprofloxacin) had growth inhibitory indices (GIIs), 0.5-0.6, 0.5-0.89 and 0.73-0.82 against E. coli, K. pneumoniae and Pr. vulgaris clinical isolates, respectively, while for the standard strains (E. coli, K. pneumoniae and Ps. aeruginosa) the GIIs ranged 0.56-0.86. Most of the extracts were tested positive for the presence of flavonoids, glycosides, steroids, terpenoids, quinone and phenol. Conclusion: The M. elengi leaf, seed and bark extracts, in combination with antibiotics, had synergistic interactions against all the standard bacterial strains and Pr. vulgaris clinical isolate, while both synergistic and additive interactions were recorded against E. coli and K. pneumoniae clinical isolates. Keywords: Mimusops elengi; Ethanolic extracts; Antibacterial activity; Phytochemical; Pathogenic bacteria Introduction Te huge numbers of infectious diseases caused by the gram- negative bacteria that are resistant to many commonly used antibiotics are the causes of great concern to the clinicians as well as the microbiologists. Phytomedicines, prepared from various plant materials, such as Ayurvedic traditional medicine, are comparatively safe, inexpensive and have less antagonistic efects. Te leaf, bark, fruit and seeds of Mimusops elengi possess several medicinal properties, viz., astringent and tonic in dental diseases and uterine disorders [1-4]. Tis plant has also been reported for analgesic, diuretic, antiulcer, antipyretic, anti-infammatory and antimicrobial activities [5-8]. In rural areas of developing countries, like India, herbal materials are in use as the primary source of medicines [9]. Nearly 80% of the people in developing countries use traditional drugs for the purpose of primary health maintenance [10]. Among the plant species occurring worldwide [11], only a very less percentage has been investigated phytochemically. Te medicines of plant origin used by the medical practitioners are in the form of extract of the whole plants or part of the plants. Some of the efects elaborated by the plant extracts used in the traditional medicine include antiviral, antitumor, antimicrobial, and having central nervous system efect [12]. Te plants possess bioactive components of therapeutic value to cure several health disorders of humans [13]. Te research interest on the antimicrobial activity of plant extracts is a raising one because of the current problems with bacterial antibiotic resistance, and the use of phytochemicals as natural antimicrobials is gaining popularity [14]. One such important traditional medicinal plant is M. elengi belonging to the Sapotaceae family, called as ‘Bakula’ in Bengali and it is well known in Ayurvedic medicine. All the parts of M. elengi have medicinal properties, and the leaves are reported to be used in the treatment of bacterial diseases by tradition [15]. Te pharmacognostic and phytochemical screening reports on M. elengi stem bark has been documented [16]. Recently, estimation of triterpene acids using from M. elengi stem bark has been published [17,18]. Antimicrobial, antiviral and hepatoprotective and cytotoxic activities of M. elengi are well accepted because of the wealth of scientifc literature supporting these efects [19]. Te aqueous and ethanol extracts M. elengi leaves have been tested against Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphyloccus aureus, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and Bacillus cereus. Te ethanol extracts had greater activity than the aqueous extracts of all the remedial plants [20]. Te M. elengi leaf extracts showed great antioxidant activity in diferent solvent like n- hexane, dichloromethane and methanol compared to diferent standered antioxidants [21]. Both enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant activities were conducted by Kalaiselvi et al. [22] in assessing the antioxidant properties of M. elengi. Te antibacterial activity of silver nanoparticles is known [23], and the biogenic silver Translational Medicine Mandal and Sircar, Transl Med (Sunnyvale) 2016, 6:4 DOI: 10.4172/2161-1025.1000187 Research Article Open Access Transl Med (Sunnyvale), an open access journal ISSN: 2161-1025 Volume 6 • Issue 4 • 1000187 T r a n s l a ti o n a l M e d i c i n e ISSN: 2161-1025