A Comparative study of the Antimicrobial activities of five varieties of essential oils from the seeds of Artocarpus

Hexane and methanolic oil extracts from five varieties of Artocarpus seeds were studied to explore its suitability for ethno medical uses. Crude hexane and methanolic oils were found to shown good to moderate activity against bacteria, in particular Gram +ve (Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram-ve (Eschirichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and fungal stains, more specifically Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavans, Candida albicans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Maximum activity was observed on bacterial strains compared with fungal strains. Hexane seed oils illustrated profound effect on Staphylococcus aureus bacteria and Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavans, Candida albicans fungi whereas methanol seed oils confirmed intense effect on Eschirichia coli, Bacillus subtilis bacteria and Aspergillus flavans, Aspergillus niger fungus. The results of tested extracts on bacterial and fungus were assessed with those of rifampicin and fluconazole standards correspondingly. Minimum inhibitory concentrations and minimum bactericidal and fungicidal concentrations of the hexane and methanolic seed oils varied between 7 to 10 mg/50 μl against all bacterial and fungal strains used in this study. The statistical analysis of all in vitro (n=3) studies with paired samples‘t’ test showed significant antimicrobial difference in between hexane and methanolic extracted seed oils. ‘P’ value less than 0.5 was considered as significant difference in the analysis. In conclusion, methanol extracted seed oils had superior antimicrobial activities than hexane extracted seed oils, more specifically Artocarpus integer methanol seed oil hadlofty superior antimicrobial activity. However, together they have profound therapeutic potential.