Antimicrobial activity of Sapindus mukorossi and Rheum emodi extracts against H pylori: In vitro and in vivo studies.

OBJECTIVE

to evaluate the antibacterial activity of Sapindus mukorossi (S. mukorossi) and Rheum emodi (R. emodi).

METHODS

Powders of S. mukorossi and R. emodi were extracted successively with petroleum ether, benzene, chloroform and ethanol and were concentrated in vacuum. The disk diffusion method was used for in vitro studies and in vivo studies were performed on male Wister rats. Thirty resistant clinical isolates of H pylori, as determined by their antibiotic sensitivity patterns by E-test, along with two Gram +ve (S. aureus, B. subtilis) and two Gram -ve (E. coli, P. vugaris) organisms were screened for their susceptibility patterns against these extracts.

RESULTS

In our screening, all 30 resistant isolates and the other four organisms (two Gram +ve S. aureus, B. subtilis and two Gram -ve, E. coli, P. vugaris) were sensitive to the test compounds. It was found that ethanol and chloroform extracts of S. mukorossi and ethanol and benzene extracts of R. emodi inhibited H pylori at very low concentrations. In the in vitro study, the isolates showed a considerable zone of inhibition at very low concentrations (10 mug/mL) for both the extracts. In the in vivo study, the H pylori infection was cleared with minimal doses of extracts of S. mukorossi (2.5 mg/mL) and R. emodi (3.0 mg/mL) given orally for seven days.

CONCLUSIONS

We can conclude from this study that the extracts of S. mukorossi and R. emodi inhibited the growth of pylori in vitro and, in in vivo studies, the H pylori infection cleared within seven days at very low concentrations. We also found that H pylori did not acquire resistance against these herbal extracts even after 10 consecutive passages.