Antimicrobial screening of some Indian spices

In India, spices have been traditionally used since ancient times, for the preservation of food products as they have been reported to have antiseptic and disinfectant properties, In this respect, a preliminary screening for antimicrobial activities of 35 different Indian spices has been carried out . Of the spices surveyed, the results indicate that clove, cinnamon, bishop 's weed, chilli, horse raddish, cumin, tamarind, black cumin, pomegranate s eeds, nutmeg, garlic, onion, tejpat, cellary, cambodge, have potent antimic robial activities against the test organisms Bacillus subtilis (ATCC 6633), Escherichia coli (ATCC 10536) and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (ATCC 9763). Th e results also establish the traditional use of spices as food preservative s, disinfectants and antiseptics, Copyright (C) 1999 John Whey & Sons, Ltd.