Assessment of Antibacterial, Antifungal, Antioxidant and Antiviral Activities of Black pepper Aqueous Seed Extract

Traditional plant - based compounds are seeking more attention in pharmaceutical aspects to treat untreatable diseases because they have no side effect, easy recovery in great amount and a high degree of activity. Spices are extensively used to improve the taste and flavor of food, acquire a broad range of medicinal properties and some of them are known to be antioxidants. The antibacterial activity of aqueous seeds extract of Piper nigrum L. was evaluated against some pathogenic bacteria. The maximum inhibition zone was accounted against Gram negative bacteria Klebsiella oxytoca (21± 0.11mm) and minimum inhibition zone was exhibited against Gram positive bacteria Enterococcus faecalis (7 ± 0.05mm) while has no activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Moreover, the aqueous seeds extract completely inhibits Penicillium citrinum growth at 500 μl by using food-poisoning technique and also showed some activity in controlling the mycelial growth of Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus. Aqueous seeds extract of Piper nigrum L. was evaluated against Herpes simplex virus (HSV1) and Coxsackie virus (COXB4) and the results showed that Piper nigrum exert (57.26 and 13.41%) inhibition of plaque of HSV1 and COXB4 respectively. Moreover, the maximum nontoxic concentration (MNTC) for black pepper aqueous seed extract was 2500 μg/ml. The extract shows antioxidant activities with IC50 = 155 μg/ml and total phenolic content of (194.05 mg GA/g extract). These results suggest that aqueous seeds extract of Piper nigrum have significant anti-viral, antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant activity signifying its usage as accepted antimicrobial representative.