Evaluation of the growth inhibitory activities of Triphala against common bacterial isolates from HIV infected patients.

The isolation of microbial agents less susceptible to regular antibiotics and the rising trend in the recovery rates of resistant bacteria highlights the need for newer alternative principles. Triphala has been used in traditional medicine practice against certain diseases such as jaundice, fever, cough, eye diseases etc. In the present study phytochemical (phenolic, flavonoid and carotenoid) and antibacterial activities of aqueous and ethanol extracts of Triphala and its individual components (Terminalia chebula, Terminalia belerica and Emblica officinalis) were tested against certain bacterial isolates (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Shigella sonnei, S. flexneri, Staphylococcus aureus, Vibrio cholerae, Salmonella paratyphi-B, Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis, Salmonella typhi) obtained from HIV infected patients using Kirby-Bauer's disk diffusion and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) methods. T. chebula was found to possess high phytochemical content followed by T. belerica and E. officinalis in both aqueous and ethanol extracts. Further, most of the bacterial isolates were inhibited by the ethanol and aqueous extracts of T. chebula followed by T. belerica and E. officinalis by both disk diffusion and MIC methods. The present study revealed that both individual and combined aqueous and ethanol extracts of Triphala have antibacterial activity against the bacterial isolates tested. Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.