Poster Presenter

An in vitro and in vivo Study on the Efficacy of Aegle marmelos against Salmonella typhi.
Neeraj Khullar and Phulan Rani

Gastrointestinal infections encompass a wide variety of symptom complexes and recognized infectious agents. With the exception of gastritis produced by Helicobacter pylori, the term gastroenteritis is applied to syndromes of diarrhoea or vomiting that tend to include non-inflammatory infections in the upper small bowel or inflammatory reactions in the colon. Infection of the gastrointestinal tract especially infectious diarrhoea, affect people of all ages around the world and are among the most debilitating infections. In Asia, Africa and Latin America, Gastrointestinal disorders are the leading cause of childhood mortality, resulting in 4600,000 to 6000,000 deaths each year. At the same time, diarrhoea is a common adverse effect of antibiotic treatment, which results from growth disruption of normal microflora of the gut by antibiotics. Moreover, antibiotic cost effectiveness especially in developing countries, where the majority of people do not have access to modern medicine is another factor that restricts their use. Hence, there is an urgent need to identify novel, active phytomolecules as the bioactive leads for effective drug development in the arena of infectious diseases .The present work is an effort to highlight the importance of different parts of plants and the possibility to use them as antimicrobials and in herbal medicines. Salmonella typhi was selected as a bacterial target for plant extracts taking into account the multiple resistances as well as the incidence of enteric diseases caused by it in India. Aegle marmelos extract was selected for further studies as it showed strong antimicrobial activity. The fruit of Aegle marmelos was shown to possess inhibitory activity against Salmonella typhi in the laboratory. The treatment of enteric diseases with Aegle marmelos appears to have a significant protective effect, even more so when administered intraperitonially in animal models. Apart from the fact that i.p. administration induced better protection than oral administration, prophylactic regimen had the greatest therapeutic effect. Thus, the use of Aegle marmelos by traditional healers in drug formulations to combat diarrhoea can be justified and explored further.