Garlic: An Effective Functional Food to Combat the Growing Antimicrobial Resistance

Emerging multidrug resistant bacterial infections are burning public health concerns worldwide. There is an urgent need to explore alternative antimicrobial agents for effective management of bacterial infections. Garlic (Allium sativum) has been traditionally used for the treatment of different diseases since ancient times. The present study aims to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of aqueous extract of Allium sativum against multidrug resistant clinical isolates of pathogenic bacteria found in human urine in cases of urinary tract infection (UTI). A total of 166 uropathogens were evaluated for antibiotic susceptibility, 56% clinical isolates were found to have high degree of resistance with multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) index >0.5. About 82% bacterial isolates with MAR index >0.5 were found to be susceptible to crude aqueous garlic extract. Thus, aqueous garlic extract (AGE) was found to possess effective anti-bacterial activity against multidrug resistant clinical pathogens and may be tested further as a natural dietary component to manage drug resistance bacteraemia. Therefore, alternate medicine practices with natural plant extract including garlic may be of great importance in combating public health challenges like UTI.