Pharmaco-Phylogenetic Investigation of Micromeria biflora Benth and Citrus reticulata Blanco

Bacterial diseases, diarrhoea, cholera, typhoid and dysentery mainly originate through consumption of bacterial contaminated water. Comparative in-vitro anti- microbial activity of some essential oils (EOs) against a few water borne bacterial diseases are reported. The min- imum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of essential oil of Micromeria biflora Benth for Escherichia coli (ATCC- 25922), E. coli (MTCC-723), Shigella dysenteriae (ATCC- 23513) Salmonella typhimurium (MTCC-98) respectively was 0.172, 0.308, 0.178, 0.202 mg/ml but in case of Vibrio cholerae (MTCC-3906) the oil was found ineffective. The essential oil of Citrus reticulata Blanco had MIC against E. coli 2.60 mg/ml, V. cholerae 8.06 mg/ml, S. dysenteriae 2.99 mg/ml, S. typhimurium 5.18 mg/ml, but the oil has no efficacy against E. coli (MTCC). Further, due to synergistic activity, the oils were found to be more effective against MTCC strain of E. coli and V. cholerae at MIC of 0.15 and 0.14 mg/ml respectively. The phylogenetic evaluations of the pathogens were carried out with help of ClustalW computer program.