Comparative Evaluation of the Antibacterial Activity of Curcuma Longa and Calotropis Procera against Corynebacterium Pseudotuberculosis

Abstract

: Livestock sector contributes 14% share in national GDP of the country. Population of sheep and goats in the country is 31.9 million and 82.5 million, respectively. Caseous lymphadenitis (CLA) is an important disease of sheep and goats that is posing huge economic losses to livestock farmers. Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis is a gram-positive bacterium, acts as etiological agent of CLA which results in abscesses formation in different body parts. In the present study, antibacterial activity of ethanolic leave’s extracts of Calotropis procera and Curcuma longa fresh rhizomes was checked against C. pseudotuberculosis that was isolated from pus samples collected from infected sheep (n=75) and goats (n=75) from different rural areas of district Bahawalpur.  The zone of inhibition (ZOI) of extract of Curcuma longa was significantly higher (6.4mm ± 1.6, P<0.05) than ZOI of extract of Calotropis procera. Optical density (OD) values were measured at 0-hours, 6-hours and 24-hours at 550 nm wavelength. The MIC values measured at 24-hours for Curcuma longa and Calotropis procera were 0.0782 µg/ml and 0.3125 µg/ml, respectively and at 6-hours 0.156 µg/ml and 0.625 µg/ml were for Curcuma longa and Calotropis procera, respectively. The MIC values of extract of Curcuma longa showed more significant antibacterial effect (t-3.530, P<0.05) than the extract of Calotropis procera (t-1.893, P>0.05). The study recommends the use of ethanolic extracts of Curcuma longa to treat CLA in sheep and goats in rural areas and further herbal and pharmacological effect be studied to formulate a compact medicine.