Title:Antimicrobial Activity of Agarwood Oil Against Multiple-Drug-Resistant (MDR) Microbes of Clinical, Food and Environmental Origin
VOLUME: 17 ISSUE: 3
Author(s):Bhoj R. Singh*, Dharmendra K. Sinha, Vinodh K. OR, Prasanna Vadhana, Monika Bhardwaj, Archana Saraf, Sakshi Dubey, Abhijit M Pawde, Ujjwal K. De and Vinod K. Gupta
Affiliation:Division of Epidemiology, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar-243 122, Division of Epidemiology, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar-243 122, Division of Epidemiology, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar-243 122, Division of Bacteriology and Mycology, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar-243 122, Division of Bacteriology and Mycology, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar-243 122, Division of Epidemiology, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar-243 122, Division of Epidemiology, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar-243 122, Division of Surgery, ICARIndian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar-243 122, Division of Medicine, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar-243 122, Division of Medicine, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar-243 122
Keywords:Agarwood oil, MDR, carbapenem resistance, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), herbal antimicrobial, and Pseudomonas
aeruginosa.
Abstract:
Background and Objectives: Multiple-Drug-Resistance (MDR) among bacteria is an
imminent problem and alternative therapies are seen as a future abode. Agarwood Oil (AO) is
described to possess antimicrobial activity besides many other medicinal utilities. This paper
discusses the antimicrobial activity of AO on MDR and non-MDR strains of microbes of 69
genera isolated from clinical and non-clinical samples.
Methods and Results: In this study sensitivity of microbes was determined for conventional
antimicrobials and AO using disc diffusion assay followed by determination of minimum
inhibitory concentration (MIC) using agar well dilution assay. A total of 18.5% (522) strains were
found sensitive to AO. Carbapenem resistant bacterial strains were more often (p, ≤0.01) resistant
to antibiotics with 4.2 times more odds (99% CI, 2.99-5.90) of being MDR than carbapenem
sensitive strains but no difference in their AO sensitivity was observed. However, MDR strains
were more often (p, <0.001) resistant to AO than non-MDR strains. Bacteria isolated from dogs
were more often sensitive to AO than those from buffaloes, human, horse, and cattle. On the other
hand, bacteria from pigs were more often (p, ≤0.05) resistant to AO than bacteria from human,
cattle, buffaloes, dogs, wild carnivores and birds. Oxidase positive Gram positive bacteria had 4.29
(95% CI, 2.94-6.27) times more odds to be AO sensitive than oxidase negative Gram negative
bacteria. Bacillus species strains were the most sensitive bacteria to AO followed by strains of
Streptococcus and Staphylococcus. The MIC of AO for different bacteria ranged from 0.01 mg/mL
to > 2.56 mg/mL.
Conclusion: The study concluded that MDR and AO resistance had a similar trend and AO may
not be seen as a good antimicrobial agent against MDR strains.
