Essential oils of Nigella sativa protects Artemia from the pathogenic effect of Vibrio parahaemolyticus Dahv2

Abstract The anti- Vibrio activity of essential oils (EOs) of nine medicinal plants was tested against 28 Vibrio spp. isolated from diseased Fenneropenaeus indicus . EO of Nigella sativa exhibited anti- Vibrio activity against all Vibrio spp. and greater inhibition was noted for the isolate V 2 which was identified as Vibrio parahaemolyticus Dahv2. Further, EO of N. sativa effectively inhibited V. parahaemolyticus Dahv2 with an inhibition zone of 23.9 mm at 101.2 μg ml −1 . Moreover, EO of N. sativa revealed anti-biofilm activity at 101.2 μg ml −1 against V. parahaemolyticus Dahv2 and inhibited the growth of V. parahaemolyticus Dahv2 at 100 μg ml −1 . In vivo experimental infection studies showed that the survival of Artemia spp. infected with V. parahaemolyticus Dahv2 at 1 × 10 3  cfu ml −1 was only 40%. However, the survival of Artemia spp. was significantly increased after challenge with 100 μg ml −1 of EO of N. sativa . EO of N. sativa showed higher anti-oxidant potential and total phenol content than other EOs tested. The anti-oxidant activity of EO of N. sativa was highly correlated to their total phenolic contents (r = 0.836, P  N. sativa protected the Artemia spp. after experimental infection of V. parahaemolyticus Dahv2.