Study of the antimicrobial activity of wild plant extracts against Escherichia coli
Keywords:
Bacterium, parasitology, pollutant, food safetyAbstract
The use of wild plants with medicinal properties has been an ancestral practice with high relevance to human health and food preservation. In Ecuador, many of these species are part of traditional knowledge and are valued for their antioxidant and antimicrobial potential. This study aimed to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of extracts obtained from wild plants for agroindustrial use. The research was conducted in the food science laboratory of the Technical University of Manabí (UTM), where extracts were obtained by ultrasound, determining the total phenol content and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the extracts. A completely randomized design with an AxB factorial arrangement was applied, where A was the type of plants (spearmint, basil, nightshade) and B the extraction methods (aqueous and ethanolic), replicated three times. The results showed that total phenolic content variable met the assumptions of normality and homogeneity required for the analysis of variance (ANOVA). This analysis revealed that the treatment with the highest total phenol content was T4 (mint with autoclaved water). In contrast, the yield variable did not meet the ANOVA assumptions, and treatment T2 (nightshade with autoclaved water) had the highest value. Finally, it was observed that there was no inhibition against Escherichia coli, which is attributed to the low concentrations of the extracts used, which were insufficient to prevent bacterial growth.
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