Research Article Antilisterial Effect of Rosa damascena and Nymphaea alba in Mus musculus Rida Batool , 1 Asma Kalsoom, 1 Iqra Akbar, 1 Najma Arshad , 2 and Nazia Jamil 1 1 Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of the Punjab, Quaid-e-Azam Campus, Lahore, Pakistan 2 Department of Zoology, University of the Punjab, Quaid-e-Azam Campus, Lahore, Pakistan Correspondence should be addressed to Rida Batool; rida.mmg@pu.edu.pk Received 19 September 2017; Accepted 29 November 2017; Published 23 January 2018 Academic Editor: Devanand P. Fulzele Copyright © 2018 Rida Batool et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Te present study was proposed to investigate the toxicological and prophylactic potential of ethanolic extracts of Rosa damascena and Nymphaea alba and their mixture in albino mice. For toxicity study, three diferent doses of plant extracts were orally administrated to three groups of mice for 14 successive days. Blood biochemistry and histological examinations of liver and kidney revealed that these extracts had no harmful efects up to 1000mg/kg. To determine the prophylactic efects of Rosa damascena, Nymphaea alba, and their mixture, an infection model of Listeria monocytogenes was established in a pilot study. Establishment of infection was confrmed by changes in haematological parameters and reisolation of Listeria monocytogenes from diferent tissues. Results showed that these extracts alone or in combination could restrict the growth of Listeria monocytogenes in diferent organs. Neutrophils were high in positive control group but remained in normal range in all treated groups. Listeria monocytogenes was recovered in low numbers from animals treated with extract of single plant but was negligible in group treated with mixture of extract of plants. Platelets count was increased in treated groups as compared to control. Results confrmed that these extracts are potent source of antimicrobial compounds and that they have synergistic efect in combined form. 1. Introduction From prehistoric times, herbs are being used as medicine for treatment of diferent illnesses [1]. About 80% of people living in developing countries use traditional medicines for therapeutic purposes [2, 3]. Medicinal plants are abundant source of bioactive compounds and are capable of reducing the infectious and noninfectious diseases; however, there are only few reports on their toxicity/side efects [4]. Human pathogens have been reported to become drug resistant even in developed countries. Te situation is severe in underdeveloped countries because of uncontrolled usage of antibiotic and antibacterial products particularly in immune- compromised subjects [5]. Te need of the time is to establish new and improved antimicrobial components to cope with the problem of emergence of resistant bacteria. Nymphaea alba Linnaeus (family: Nymphaeaceae) is commonly known as water lily or water rose. Nymphaea alba (aquatic herb) consists of continuous shoots anchored with mud. Tis fora is generally found in ponds and lakes of warmer places of Africa, Europe, China, Southwest Asia, Russia, and India [6]. All the parts of plant were used by ancient people for treatment [7]. In traditional system of medication, all parts of this plant have been utilized to treat various illnesses [8]. Terapeutically, Nymphaea alba is used as aphrodisiac, astringent, cardiotonic, sedative, and anti-infammatory [6]. It consists of various phyto- chemical compounds, for example, alkaloids, polyphenolic compounds, favonoids, tannic acid, glycosides, gallic acid, and sterols. Most commonly it is used to cure gonorrhoea, diarrhea, and leucorrhoea because of antibacterial potential of this plant [9]. Various in vivo studies of Nymphaea alba reported that this plant has antidiabetic [10], antidiarrheal [11], hepatoprotective, antioxidant, and anti-infammatory activities [12], intestinal -glucosidase inhibition and toxicity [13], anxiolytic activity [14], and anticarcinogenic efect [8], Hindawi BioMed Research International Volume 2018, Article ID 4543723, 9 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/4543723