Effect of Aqueous and Alcoholic Plant Extracts on Inhibition of Some Types of Microbes and Causing Spoilage of Food

The current study included the preparation of the aqueous extract and alcohol leaves Ziziphus (Ziziphus spinachristi), Eucalyptus plant (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) and assessed the antimicrobial its against reference strains of bacteria and mold, through chemical compound detection leaves Ziziphus plant results showed contain the aqueous extract and alcohol at all effective compounds that have been detected except composite resins in aqueous extract and resins in the alcoholic extract. As the leaves of Eucalyptus plant have aqueous extract and alcohol contained resins, tannins, phenols. It tested the effectiveness of inhibitory extract plant against five isolates bacterial and five isolates of molds. It uses the concentration of 50 and 100 mg/ml of each extract, Similarly maximum zone of inhibition through ethanol extract was obtained against both bacterial and molds isolates as well as increased efficiency with increasing of concentration. Keyword: Ziziphus; Eucalyptus plant extracts; Inhibition Introduction Plants are the fundamental to existence on globe as they directly or indirectly resource around 70-80% of human energy and protein consumption, the rest being resulting from visceral products. They are sparingly significant to man due to their numerous applications, such as antibiotics, analgesic, flavors, perfumes, insecticides, dyes, food additives, poisons etc. [1]. Medicinal plants are gifts of nature to cure a number of diseases among human beings. A large number of plants in different location around the world have been extracted, semi-purified to investigate individually their antimicrobial activity. However, very little information is available on such activity of medicinal plants and out of the 400,000 plant species on earth, only a small amount has been systematically investigated for their antimicrobial activities [2]. Their extracts have gained importance as potential antibacterial agents. Secondary metabolites of plants, including the tannins, flavonoids and alkaloids have been found to possess antimicrobial properties in vitro [3]. The Ziziphus and Eucalyptus plants that have received wide attention in the field of folk medicine since the Ziziphus goes back to the plant family Cedria Rhamanaceae and spreads widely in areas with moderate temperatures and dry land areas Hemisphere warm climates, including Iraq [4]. Eucalyptus is one of such medicinal plants belonging to Myrtaceae family, native of Australia. It’s spread in many countries, including Iraq. The present study aimed to know the chemical components in plant extracts as well as evaluating the antimicrobial activity of plant extracts including Ziziphus and Eucalyptus against some pathogenic bacteria and molds. Materials and Methods Sample collection The Fresh leaves of the Plant (Ziziphus and Eucalyptus leaves) were collected from Altnoma and Abu Kasib in Basrah province of Iraq-Basra at January-November 2014 and placed in polyethylene bags and transported to the Biotechnology laboratory of the Food Science department /Faculty of Agriculture. Plants grind Ziziphus and Eucalyptus leaves were carefully washed using tap water to remove the dusts and then dried in an oven at 60°C for 8 h. The dried leaves were milled separately in a small electric mill (HighSpeed Grinder, China), The powdered leaves of these plants were transferred to a glass sealed cans and placed in the refrigerator before the extraction process. Extract preparation The aqueous extract of dried plant leaves was made in the distilled water. About 5 grams of each plant leaves powder (Ziziphus and Eucalyptus) were taken and mixed in 50 ml of distilled water. The mixture was taken into 250 ml sterile conical flasks, plugged with sterile cotton and kept in Shaking Incubator (Kottermann, Germany) with the 200 rpm for 24 h. The solution was filtered through muslin cloth, This process was repeated three times after which a clear aqueous extract of the plant was taken. Hot water extract: 10 g of the weighed plant leaves powder was soaked in 100 ml of boiled hot water. That mixture was boiled for thirty minutes into a conical flask and put for 24 h. The extract was filtered using filter paper and evaporated. Ethanol extract: The ethanol extract of dried plant leaves was also prepared. The ethanol extract was prepared through the same protocol followed for that of cold water extraction [1]. Detection and chemical solutions used in the study Wagner reagent: Prepare by the method of Harborn, (1984) were Citation: Al-Manhel AJ, Niamah AK (2015) Effect of Aqueous and Alcoholic Plant Extracts on Inhibition of Some Types of Microbes and Causing Spoilage of Food. J Nutr Food Sci S5: 006. doi:10.4172/2155-9600.S5-006