Antityphoid activity of peel,pericarp and fruit extracts of punica granatum (pomegranate) in vitro

Aim: to evaluate the anti-bacterial potential of pomegranate against salmonella typhi. methodology: ethanolic extracts of pomegranate's different parts; peel,pericarp and fruit were screened for anti-bacterial activity against multi-drug resistance (mdr) strain (uhs-14) by agar well diffusion method. 6% phenol was used as positive control. results: the peel extract had the largest inhibitory zone of 22.73+/-0.26mm against salmonella typhi. followed by pericarp (22.47+/-0.36mm) and fruit (15.55+/-0.29mm) extracts at neat concentration. the peel,pericarp and fruit extracts were further evaluated for minimum inhibitory concentration (mic) against forty five clinical isolates of salmonella typhi. the peel extract showed mic of 22mg/ml; followed by pericarp (mic 24mg/ml) and fruit extract (64mg/ml). conclusion: ethanolic peel extract displayed highest antibacterial activity against salmonella typhi in both agar diffusion and agar dilution assay as compared to pericarp and fruit extracts. this warrants further evaluation of peel extract in suitable typhoid animal model.