Ghayda Ismat Alhawamdeh
Jumana Secondary School for Girls, Ramtha, Irbid, JORDAN
Punica granatum is commonly used in Jordan as a traditional medicine for the treatment of pathogenic bacteria. In this study, the antimicrobial activity of different extracts from the rind of P. granatum was evaluated against Klebsiella pneumonia, Haemophilus influenzae and Acinetobacter species. The extract with the best activity was chosen for purifying the active ingredient which responsible for the antimicrobial activity.
METHOD: Three crude extracts of P. granatum were prepared using chloroform, methanol and distilled water. Phenol bounded with peptides was released by hydrolyzing aqueous extract with 0.1N NaOH pH12.
Proteins in the aqueous extract were partially purified using ammonium sulfate, gel chromatography and ion-exchange chromatography. Disc diffusion method was used to evaluate the antimicrobial activity.
RESULTS: Both aqueous and methanolic extracts showed antimicrobial activity against the three bacterial species. The third fraction obtained from ammonium sulfate fractionation inhibited the growth of K. pneumonia, H. influenzae and A. species with inhibition zones 2.1, 1.7 and 1.9 cm respectively. The inhibition zones of the second peak in gel chromatography were 1.4, 1.8 and 1.5cm respectively, while the inhibition zones for the second peak of ion-exchange chromatography were 1.4, 1.3 and 1.2cm respectively.
Free phenol extract showed the highest activity with the inhibition zones of 2.2, 1.9 and 2.1 cm respectively. Phenol free peptides did not show any antimicrobial activity.
CONNCLUSION: The rind of P. granatum posses an antimicrobial activity against Klebsiella pneumoniam, Haemophilus influenzae and Acinetobacter species. And this antimicrobial activity is due to a phenolic compound and not to a peptide. Awards won at the 2010 ISEF Fourth Award of $500 - Microbiology - Presented by Intel