Author(s): Mehul M Sheta, Kunjan M Kikani, Parth Kavathia, Jainy Thakkar and Twinkle Rangnani

Abstract: Drug resistance has developed due to indiscriminate use of existing allopathic antimicrobial drugs and become a global health problem. This resistance problem demands renewed efforts to seek antimicrobial agents from other sources. Herbal Products of higher plants has antimicrobial compounds with possibly novel mechanism of action with minimum side effects. Triphala is a herbal formulation, consisting of equal parts of fruits of Amla (Emblica officinalis), Harde (Terminalia chebula) and Baheda (Terminalia bellerica). These are claimed to have antiviral, antifungal and antibacterial effects. Present study was aimed to identify antimicrobial effect of Triphala and its individual components against common bacterial isolates, Candida and to compare the antimicrobial effect of water and DMSO based extracts of it. Triphala and its components were dissolved in distilled water and also in DMSO to get a final concentration of 100 mg/ml. Suspensions of S. aureus, Coagulase Negative Staphylococci, Enterococci sp., Lactobacillus sp., E. coli, Klebsiella sp., Pseudomonas sp., Candida sp. were inoculated on Mueller Hinton agar (MHA). Wells were made on MHA plates and herbal extract (100 μl) were added in to it. After 18 hours of incubation at 35 °C, zone of inhibition surrounding wells were measured and recorded. We have observed antimicrobial activity of each component against most of organisms. It was also observed that triphala is having more antimicrobial effect compared to its individual components. We had not observed significant difference in antimicrobial effect between water and DMSO extracts of these herbal preparations.