Study on Antibacterial Activity of Common Spices

Abstract

Spices have been shown to possess medicinal value, in particular, antimicrobial activity. They are used as householdmedicines as well as preservatives of food materials. This study compares the sensitivity of some human pathogenicbacteria to various spice extracts viz. essential oils, acetone and methanol extracts by agar well diffusion method.Of the different spices tested clove, ajowan and cinnamon were found to possess relatively higher antimicrobialactivities. Essential oil of cinnamon showed broad spectrum of inhibition against all tested bacteria while essentialoil of ajowan and clove inhibited 90% and 70% bacteria respectively. Acetone and methanol extracts of cloveshowed better antibacterial activity among the spices. The MBC value ranged from 0.39 to 25mg/ml. The lowestMBC (minimal bactericidal concentration) value was given by essential oil of cinnamon against E.coli, S. aureusand S. Typhi. Gram positive bacteria were found to be more sensitive to spices than Gram negative bacteria. Spices might have a great potential to be used as antimicrobial agents.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/njst.v12i0.6518 Nepal Journal of Science and Technology 12 (2011) 312-317