Wide spectrum antibacterial and antifungal activities in the seeds of somecoprophilous plants of north Indian plains

In a survey at Lucknow, India, the seedlings of plant species which are pre scribed in the Indian traditional system of medicine for a variety of infec tious diseases were found to predominate on fresh or decomposing cattle dun g, a harsh medium for plant growth due to high microbial load and other abi otic factors. Plants of most of the common species did not occur on the cat tle dung heaps. It was hypothesized that plant species which are able to gr ow on cattle dung may have antimicrobial compounds in their seeds to protec t them from microbial attack. In confirmation, the seeds of 15 of the copro philous (kopros-dung, philein-to love) plant species, identified as occurri ng most frequently on fresh/decomposing cattle dung were directly tested ag ainst eight bacterial and three fungal strains. Interestingly, seeds of all the examined species exhibited antimicrobial activity. The seeds of the sp ecies found more frequently on the cattle dung heaps possessed higher level s of antimicrobial activities. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All r ights reserved.