In vitro phytochemical analysis and antibacterial and antifungal efficacy assessment of ethanolic and aqueous extracts of Rumex nervosus leaves against selected bacteria and fungi

Vet World Vol.15 November-2022 Article-25

Research Article

Veterinary World, 15(11): 2725-2737

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2022.2725-2737

Maged A. Al-Garadi¹, Mohammed M. Qaid¹, Abdulmohsen H. Alqhtani¹, Anthony Pokoo-Aikins², and Saud I. Al-Mufarrej¹

1. Department of Animal Production, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia.
2. US National Poultry Research Center, Toxicology and Mycotoxin Research Unit, USDA, ARS, Athens, Georgia 30605, USA.

Background and Aim: Scientists are interested in identifying natural antibiotic substitutes that are effective against drug-resistant pathogenic microbes and spoilage fungi to counter pathogens and reduce the major public health problem of antibiotic residues in animal products. This study aimed to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of Rumex nervosus leaves (RNL) as a medicinal herb against four bacterial and two fungal strains using absolute ethanol, 50% ethanol, and aqueous extracts.

Materials and Methods: The antimicrobial activities of various RNL extracts against selected microbes were evaluated using the disk diffusion antibiotic susceptibility test, minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs), minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBCs), minimum fungicidal concentrations, and the poisoned food technique.

Results: The absolute ethanol RNL extract showed the best bacteriostatic/bactericidal activity against Salmonella Typhimurium, Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus aureus (MIC/MBC: 0.20/0.40, 0.20/0.40, and 0.32/0.65 mg/mL, respectively). The diameter of the zone of inhibition was larger (p < 0.05) for the 100% ethanol RNL extract (8.17 mm) against Salmonella Typhimurium, the 50% ethanol-RNL extract (11.5 mm) against E. coli, and the aqueous RNL extract (14.0 mm) against S. aureus than for any other bacterial isolate. The aqueous RNL extract strongly (p < 0.0001) inhibited the mycelial growth of Aspergillus fumigatus (100%) and Aspergillus niger (81.4%) compared with the control.

Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that RNL is a promising new natural antimicrobial agent for food preservation. To date, most research on the antimicrobial properties of natural herbs has been conducted in vitro, with few exceptions in vivo and intervention-based research. Keywords: antimicrobial activity, Aspergillus spp., Gram-negative bacteria, Gram-positive bacteria, phytochemicals, Rumex nervosus leaves.

Keywords: antimicrobial activity, Aspergillus spp., Gram-negative bacteria, Gram-positive bacteria, phytochemicals, Rumex nervosus leaves.

How to cite this article: Al-Garadi MA, Qaid MM, Alqhtani AH, Pokoo-Aikins A, and Al-Mufarrej SI (2022) In vitro phytochemical analysis and antibacterial and antifungal efficacy assessment of ethanolic and aqueous extracts of Rumex nervosus leaves against selected bacteria and fungi, Veterinary World, 15(11): 2725–2737.

Received: 29-08-2022 Accepted: 26-10-2022 Published online: 29-11-2022

Corresponding author: Mohammed M. Qaid E-mail: mqaid@ksu.edu.sa

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2022.2725-2737

Copyright: Al-Garadi, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.