ABSTRACT

Garlic has been used throughout all of recorded history for culinary and medicinal reasons. The portion of the plant most often consumed is an underground storage structure called a head. The antimicrobial effects of Allium sativum (garlic) against some bacterial isolates were investigated using the agar diffusion well method. Standard methods were used to carry out the investigation. Photochemical analyses of the ethanolic extracts showed the presence of many secondary metabolites such as saponins, tannins, alkaloid steroids and glycosides. The minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum bactericidal concentration of the agent (garlic) was determined for both the aqueous and ethanolic extract. The ethanolic extract was more effective than the aqueous extract, inhibiting all the test organisms. While the aqueous extracts was effective against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Garlic extracts are strictly broad-spectrum with immune boosting phytonutrients from Allium ‘family’. Further research will need to be done to carry out the purification of the active ingredients which have potential for combating human disease. Also, toxicological studies need to be evaluated.

1. Introduction Fruit based industry produces a large volume of solid and liquid waste. These pose increasing disposal and pollution problems (high BOD or COD) and represents loss of valuable biomass and nutrients (Mridul&Preethi, 2014).Disposal of wastes from fruit-canning industries has been a problem due to high transportation costs and limited availability of landfills, as these byproducts carry no commercial value, they are often discharged in places they ought not to be disposed (Pradeep et al., 2014). This particularly occurs where there is a lack of legislation and their enforcement on waste disposal (Omojasolaet al., 2009). These wastes directly affect environmental agencies and municipalities because food waste is a primary source of methane gas in landfills (Gunders, 2012). Recycling fruit-waste to develop new products has received much attention lately. Organic waste treatment processes (Purkayastha, 2012) and anaerobic digestion processes (Shin et al., 2010; Dai et al., 2013; Bernstadet al., 2013) are two promising technologies used in this regard. Presently, the main use of such domestic food waste is the production of valuable compounds by the controlled break down of the waste by microorganisms (Rounsefellet al., 2013). Lactic acid has gained importance for its application in food, feed, chemical, pharmaceutical and beverage industries (Ray & Swain, 2011). Most important application of lactic acid is its use

The biodegradative activities of three Gram negative bacilli (Aeromonas hydrophila,

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