Assessment of Antimicrobial Activity and Determination of Phytochemical Constituents of Herbs Used in Burn Wound Treatment

Burn wounds can be invasive as well as non-invasive as they are frequently exposed to microbial infections and this can lead to development of several complications as patients affected with burn wounds are in the state of immune suppression. Also, nosocomial infections play a major role in infecting the burn wounds. Apart from nosocomial infections, emerging multi-drug resistant microorganisms such as Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) also contribute to burn wound infections. The development of fungal infections in burn wounds is caused by Candida albicans and Aspergillus sp., as they possess higher resistance to conventional azoles. To overcome the multi-drug resistance complication, the present study deals with screening of those herbal extracts that can treat burn wounds and microbial infections associated with them efficiently. The herbs collected for screening in this study were Rosmarinus officinalis , Myristica fragrans , Nigella sativa and Chrysopogon zizanoides. On completion of antimicrobial activity assessment, it was observed that Rosmarinus officinalis and Myristica fragrans possessed highest antimicrobial activity and were further used for in the form of combinatorial herbal extract. In case of combinatorial herbal extract highest antibacterial activity was observed against Klebsiella pneumoniae (19 mm) and combinatorial herbal extract showed activity against all the bacterial strains and in case of fungi the highest antifungal activity was against Candida albicans (16 mm). Apart from efficient antimicrobial activity both the extracts had efficient antioxidant activity which is required for wound healing also phytochemicals were present in a considerable quantity in ethanolic extracts of Rosmarinus officinalis and Myristica fragrans.