Exploring an Indian Herb Sphaeranthus indicus for Antimicrobial Efficacy against Helicobacter pylori and Effect of Combination Therapy against Drug Resistant Human Pathogens

Among the various opportunistic infections, those caused by Helicobacter pylori, a human Opportunistic pathogen, is attracting much attention. Relatedly, increasing rates of antibiotic-resistant H. pylori strains have been found, and therefore, the search for new eradication strategies and effective antibiotic therapies has become an issue of crucial importance. Hence, research effort is focused on exploring an Indian Herb as sources of anti-H. pylori agents. The antibacterial activity of flower extract of Sphaeranthus indicus has been evaluated against clinical isolates of H. pylori. The plant also has been found to be effective against a variety of human pathogens. Initial antibacterial screening was made by the disc diffusion method. The results presented in this work demonstrated that among the plant preparation analyzed, the flower extract of S. indicus was capable of inhibiting the in vitro growth of H. pylori. New sources of antimicrobial drugs are now needed to be identified and improved strategy should be developed to combat multidrug resistance problem in pathogenic bacteria. Plant extract and phytochemicals demonstrating antimicrobial action needs to be exploited for their synergistic action between extracts with antibiotics to exploit it in modern phytomedicine and combinational therapy. In the present study in addition to H. pylori the alcoholic extracts of Sphaeranthus indicus was screened for their antimicrobial efficacy against a wide variety of drug resistant bacteria and yeast. The extracts showed promising action against one or more drug resistant bacteria as well as against Candida albicans with MIC ranged from 0.5 mg/ml to 4.62 mg/ml. The combination of the extract showed synergistic action. The extract of Sphaeranthus indicus exhibited synergy with antibiotics, tetracycline, chloramphenicol, ampicillin and gentamicin against methicillin resistant S. aureus which has indicated their potential to be exploited in combination drug therapy after careful evaluation in vivo model.