Antibacterial Effects of Fenugreek, Wheat and Hot Red Pepper Seeds and Their Germs Extract on Inhibiting Staphylococcus aureus and Enterobacter cloacae Growth

Aims: The work investigated the effects of plant seeds such as fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.), wheat grains (Triticum aestivum L.), and hot red pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) which are traditionally used as natural food preservatives or at least to minimize the used concentrations of artificial preservative, meantime to serve as antibacterial agents against certain positive and negative gram bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213 and Enterobacter cloacae Enk1 LT592256 and the effectiveness of using germinated seeds in reducing bacterial growth.

Study Design: The experiments were designed as one way completely randomized design.

Place and Duration of Study: The experiments were carried out at the Regional Center for Food and Feed (RCFF), Agricultural Research Center, and Faculty of Agriculture Saba Basha, Alexandria University, Egypt.

Methodology: The living bacterial cells in each treatment was estimated after 5 days of incubation at 25°C the total viable bacterial counts were determined using the plate count agar method. Microbial numbers in all samples were determined using serial dilutions also, determine the total flavonoids, antioxidant activity, and total phenol contents of the tested seeds and their germs.

Results: Our results demonstrated that the maximum number of S. aureus bacteria in 10-1 on wheat germinated seeds extract at 1000 µl that is 290 CFU and the maximum number of E. cloaceae was 370 CFU was found in wheat non-germinated seeds at 500µl concentration, however, the highly inhibitory concentration of S. aureus 1000 µl was realized using non-germinated red pepper seeds extract (97.9%) and (92.9%) in the case of E. cloaceae bacteria. The maximum inhibition percentage was found with red pepper non-germinated seeds for (S. aureus) it was (97.9%) and for the (E. cloaceae) was (92.9%) under the concentration 1000 µl. The results showed that germs extract was less effective as an antibacterial agent than seed extract. S. aureus was more susceptible than E. cloacae. The use of hot red pepper seeds extracts then fenugreek extract was highly effective in reducing the growth of both the tested bacteria.

Conclusion: Hot pepper and fenugreek extracts can be used as natural alternative preventives to control food poisoning diseases. Non Germinated seeds are most effective against studied bacteria growth.