Surveillance of multidrug resistance of 10 enteropathogens in a teaching hospital and in vitro efficacy of 25 ethnomedicinal plants used by an Indian aborigine

ObjectiveTo have an antibiogram of hospital acquired (HA) and community acquired (CA) enteropathogens against 16 antibiotics to assess the infection dynamics for plausible help to the antimicrobial stewardship. To check extracts of 25 lesser-known plants used by an Indian aborigine, for antimicrobial efficacy in vitro and as complementary and alternate medicines against resistant pathogens.MethodsTen strains of enteric bacteria (Enterobacter aerogenes, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella sp., Salmonella paratyphi, S. typhi, Shigella boydii, S. dysenteriae, S. flexneri, S. sonnei and Vibrio cholerae) were isolated from clinical samples in 6 months and their antibiotic sensitivity was assessed by the disc-diffusion method. Concentrated aqueous and ethanolic extracts of leaves and barks of plants were used for monitoring their antibacterial potencies, by the agar-well diffusion method.ResultsIsolated bacterial strains were invariably multidrug resistant (MDR). E. coli was the most frequently isolated organism from HA and CA samples, followed next by Klebsiella sp. From the surveillance, it was evident that the distribution of MDR strains of each was more in HA than CA isolates. Aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Aegle marmelos, Azadirachta indica, Cassia fistula, Holarrhena antidysenterica, Salvadora persica and Terminalia arjuna were highly effective against the all isolated enteropathogenic strains. From the preliminary phytochemical analysis, it was confirmed that both extracts of A. indica, T. arjuna and T. alata contained all the detected phytochemicals (alkaloids, glycosides, terpenoids, reducing sugars, saponins, tannins, flavonoids and steroids), which plausibly attributed to their significant antibacterial activity.ConclusionsPhytoextracts were highly effective against the all enteropathogenic bacterial isolates, in vitro. These 25 plants could be used further for the isolation of pure compounds for use as complementary medicines.