Antagonism activity of citrus fruit juices on some pathogenic bacteria

An experiment was conducted in the Biological Dep. College of Science, Kufa University to determine the antagonism activity of Lemon and Lime juices against some bacteria e.g. Esherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, and Shigella flexneri. Results of this experiment revealed that all juices concentrations have inhibiting effects against bacteria due to the presence of citric acid and some volatile oils e.g.(lamonine) and some materials e.g. linalyl acetate, linalool, turpinol and cymen. Results also showed a reduction in the value of pH. Both juices from lemon and lime were found to be responsible for inhibiting the studied bacterial growth parameters with inhibition zone ranging from 8-29 mm. Mean while, there were significant differences between the two juices towards the inhibition of tested bacterial effects. The antagonism effects of these two juices were compared with the antagonism effects for some antibiotics. The isolated bacteria were resistant to the most antibiotics except, for Ciprofloxacin, Gentamicin, Chloramphenicol and Cefotaxime. The tested inhibition zone bacteria were 25-30 mm Ciprofloxacin and Chloramphenicol, respectively, compared with the inhibition zone that ranging from 5-29 mm and 25 mm for lemon and lime juices, respectively. The experiment proved that citrus fruit juices were more effective than antibiotics in bacteria growth inhibition. These results were encouraging to prepare special pharmacological formulas from citrus fruit juices.