EVALUATION OF ANTIBACTERIAL POTENTIAL OF SELECTED CULINARY HERBS AGAINST SOME FOODBORNE PATHOGENIC BACTERIA.

Culinary herbs consist of bioactive compounds which play an important role as natural antimicrobial agents. The present study was carried out with the objective of evaluating the antibacterial activity of extracts from selected culinary herbs; Trachyspermum involucratum, Laurus nobilis, Coriandrum sativum, Allium tuberosum, Allium schoenoprasum, Melissa officinalis, Origanum majorana, Origanum vulgare, Rosmarinus officinalis, Santolina chamaecyparissus, and Satureja hortensis. Different extraction solvents (sterilized distilled water, hot distilled water (80°C), absolute methanol, and acetone) were used against three foodborne pathogens (E. coli NCTC 10418, E. coli ATCC 25922, and Enterococcus faecalis) using the agar-well diffusion method. Statistical analysis using two-factor factorial completely randomized design in SAS software revealed that all solvent extracts of Trachyspermum involucratum has the highest antibacterial activity (p<0.05) followed by Rosmarinus officinalis, Santolina chamaecyparissus, Satureja hortensis, Origanum vulgare, and Coriandrum sativum against all tested bacteria with variable potential. Further, hot distilled water (80°C) extract of Trachyspermum involucratum had significant antibacterial activity against E. coli NCTC 10418 (14.67 ± 1.53 mm). In particular, organic extracts of Rosmarinus officinalis, Santolina chamaecyparissus and Satureja hortensis had strong antibacterial activity against E. coli NCTC 10418 and Enterococcus faecalis. Overall, Enterococcus faecalis has highly inhibited the growth followed by E. coli NCTC 10418 and E. coli ATCC 25922 in extracts of the best anti-bacterially active herbs. The minimum inhibitory concentration of above the herb extracts was 0.2 g mL-1 against most of the tested pathogens. It can be concluded that culinary herbs are potentially effective as natural antimicrobials against tested foodborne pathogens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]