Phytochemical Screening of Ethnomedicinal Herbal Extracts and Their Effect on Microbial Quality of Sukuti

Abstract

The main objective of the study was to screen phytochemical constituents of ethnomedicinal herbs and to determine their effect on the microbial quality of sukuti. Specific objectives include preparation of herbal extracts, isolation, and identification of microorganisms from sukuti, determination of antimicrobial property of herbal extracts, and microbial analysis of herbal sukuti. Four ethnomedicinal herbs (Zanthoxylum armatum, Litsea cubeba, Heracleum nepalense, and Evodia fraxinifolia) having culinary importance were selected for the study. For the preparation of herbal extract, herbs were ground (particle size < 250 µ), treated with 50% ethanol (v/v), and concentrated in a rotary vacuum evaporator at 50 v o C. Four of the spoilage and pathogenic microorganism viz. Salmonella, Staphylococcus, E. coli, and Lactic acid bacteria were isolated and identified from the sukuti samples for the study. Herbal extracts at the concentration of 40, 20, 10, and 2 mg/ml were tested against the isolates to determine the antimicrobial property of the extracts. The best herb with optimum concentration was selected based on its antimicrobial activity. Zanthoxylum armatum at 40 mg/ml concentration showed the highest zone of inhibition against the test organisms and therefore selected for final product development. Meat strips (1 cm  1 cm  25 cm) were marinated with Zanthoxylum armatum (40 mg/ml) extract at the rate of 2%, aged (24 h at 4 ± 2C), and dried at cabinet drier for 2 days at 55C. Total Plate Counts of control (untreated) and herbal sukuti (treated) were carried out for 20 days within an interval of 10 days to determine the microbial stability of the final product. The total plate count for treated sample was significantly lower (p<0.05) than that of untreated sample.