PLANT CELL BIOTECHNOLOGY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

Aim of the present work is to evaluate the anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-cancerous and multi-stress activities of medicinal plant extract of Allium sativum. Fresh garlic was purchased from the local market. Cloves of fresh bulb of garlic were separated, peeled and washed with tap water and then sterilized distilled water to obtain the edible portion of the garlic clove. This material was dried in shade at room temperature (24°C). Three types of extracts were prepared for each garlic using three organic solvents: ethanol, n- haxene and water. The antibacterial and antifungal activity of ethanolic, n- haxene and aqueous garlic extract was determined on some selected microorganisms such as Escherichia coli, Bacillus cereus, Pseudomonas, Aeromonas hydrophila, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavous and Rhizopus stolonifer. From the results of the antibacterial and antifungal activities it is clear that the aqueous extract showed no inhibitory effect on these test microorganisms. Ethanolic extract of antibacterial activity of Escherichia coli, Bacillus cereus, Pseudomonas, Aeromonas hydrophila showed the zones of inhibition of 9.25 mm, 9.51 mm, 9.5 mm and 9.5 mm respectively but the positive control showed the zone of inhibition at 7 mm. and 9.25 mm in case of Pseudomonas and Aeromonas hydrophila respectively. The n-hexane extracts of antibacterial activity of E. coli, Bacillus cereus, Pseudomonas and Aeromonas hydrophila showed the zone of inhibition 6.15 mm, 6.02 mm, 7.90 mm and 5.965 mm respectively while the positive control showed inhibition zone about 0.00 mm. Ethanolic extracts of antifungal activity showed the maximum result in Aspergillus flavous at 18 mm of the zone of inhibition. The n-haxene extracts of antifungal activity showed the maximum result in Aspergillus flavous showing 18mm as the area of inhibition.