Vol. 12, Issue 7 (2023)

Author(s):
Gayathri SL, Bhakat M and Mohanty TK

Abstract:
The medicinal properties of Moringa oleifera are utilised worldwide, especially its antimicrobial activity, based on which several preparations are available in the market. The present study evaluates the antibacterial activity of aqueous extracts of moringa leaf, pods, gum powder, and seed oil against specific microbial cultures. Also, the zone of inhibition was compared among the mastitic and non-mastitic cultures against the different Moringa extracts. The microbial cultures were activated before the antimicrobial activity estimation. The results revealed that the mastitic cultures showed the highest zone of inhibition compared to the non-mastitic cultures for the different concentrations of M. oleifera aqueous leaf extracts, pods, and gum powder for different dilutions. The different bacterial cultures showed a significant increase (p<0.05) in the mean values of the zone of inhibition of different concentrations of M. oleifera, and these cultures differed significantly (p<0.01) within the MIC for various dilutions. For different strains of E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus, the mean values of the zone of inhibition ranged from 2-26 and 2-21.50mm for M. oleifera aqueous leaf extract, 9-25 and 8-27mm for M. oleifera seed oil extracts, 15-27 and 9-28mm for M. oleifera pods powder aqueous extract, 11-24 and 4-17mm for M. oleifera gum powder aqueous extract, respectively for various concentrations from 100-300µl. Mastitic cultures were more susceptible to M. oleifera extracts and reflected an increase in zone of inhibition with an increase in concentration (100-300µl) and dilution than the non-mastitic cultures. Thus, the present study reveals that the various extracts of M. oleifera could be used in the development of prophylactic herbal preparations against mastitis causative agents.