Studies of acid resistance characteristics in multiple drug resistant Salmonella species isolated from tomatoes.

Salmonella species found to have a great potential of causing a variety of diseases ranging from gastroenteritis to enteric fever. Salmonella have been isolated from all food, animals and also found in the vegetables such as tomatoes, spinach etc. Several out breaks of Salmonellosis have been associated with the consumption of raw tomatoes. This is because of the fact that Salmonella attaches to the surface of tomatoes and also present in the interior part due to geotropic transmission via contaminated soil irrigated with contaminated water. .During the life cycle, Salmonella encounters the various environments such as acidic environment (low pH). To overcome such factors, Salmonella has certain adaptable mechanisms. In present 'study total 200 samples of tomatoes were analyzed out of which 10 samples were found to contain Salmonella. All the 10 isolates were then subjected to the antibiotic susceptibility testing and were found to be resistant against several antibiotics. These were subjected to acid resistant tolerance study.

Antimicrobial activities of Eugenol and Cinnamaldehyde against the human gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori.

BACKGROUND: Eradication of Helicobacter pylori is an important objective in overcoming gastric diseases. Many regimens are currently available but none of them could achieve 100% success in eradication. Eugenol and cinnamaldehyde that are commonly used in various food preparations are known to possess antimicrobial activity against a wide spectrum of bacteria. AIM: The present study was performed to assess the in vitro effects of eugenol and cinnamaldehyde against indigenous and standard H. pylori strains, their minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and time course lethal effects at various pH. METHODS: A total of 31 strains (29 indigenous and one standard strain of H. pylori ATCC 26695, one strain of E. coli NCIM 2089) were screened. Agar dilution method was used for the determination of drug sensitivity patterns of isolates to the commonly used antibiotics and broth dilution method for the test compounds. RESULTS: Eugenol and cinnamaldehyde inhibited the growth of all the 30 H. pylori strains tested, at a concentration of 2 mug/ml, in the 9th and 12th hours of incubation respectively. At acidic pH, increased activity was observed for both the compounds. Furthermore, the organism did not develop any resistance towards these compounds even after 10 passages grown at sub-inhibitory concentrations. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that the two bioactive compounds we tested may prevent H. pylori growth in vitro, without acquiring any resistance.