Abstract

ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF COCKROACH HEMOLYMPH

G. Manikyam and G. Swathi*

Abstract

There is a need to discover new antimicrobial compounds with diverse chemical structures and novel mechanisms of action because there has been an alarming increase in the incidence of new and re-emerging infectious diseases. The present study is aimed at evaluating the in vitro antimicrobial activity of cockroach hemolymph against Escherichia coli, Proteus, Pseudomonas, Staphylococcus and Enterococcus. Streptomycin is used as a positive control. The cockroach hemolymph was effective against all bacterial strains tested when compared with positive control. The cockroach hemolymph has shown the highest activity on Enterococcus and Staphylococcus with 2.0mm and 2.2mm of inhibitory zone respectively when compared to remaining strains. The inhibitory zone of streptomycin is 2.4mm. The present investigation showed optimum activity against Gram positive bacteria when compared to Gram negative bacteria. It had thrown light on potential area to do research on cockroach hemolymph.

Keywords: Cockroach hemolymph, bacterial stains, inhibition zone.