Anti-Helicobacter pylori activity of Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench (okra): An in vitro study

The anti-Helicobacter pylori activity of the methanol and hexane extracts of Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench (okra) dried fruits were evaluated on forty-one clinical isolates and a standard ATCC 43504 strain by the use of agar well diffusion technique. The methanol extract of A. esculentus showed A. esculentus L. Moench (okra) dried fruit had inhibitory effects against Helicobacter strains; with diameters zone of inhibition  between 13 and 28 mm on 32 out of the 42 isolates tested. No noticeable zone of inhibition was observed from the hexane extract of the tested plant on all the H. pylori strains tested. The bioactive methanol extract of A. esculentus demonstrated A. esculentus L. Moench (okra) dried fruit had minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of  70 to 85 mgml-1 on selected susceptible strains except H. pylori ATCC 43504 which had MIC value of 250 mgml-1. The time-kill study of the methanol extract of A. esculentus on H. pylori BAA009, H .pylori BAA026 and H. pylori ATCC 43504, revealed a decline in the surviving population of the organisms after 8 h of exposure to the methanol extracts of A. esculentus L. Moench dried fruit at doses equivalent to MIC, 2 × MIC and 4 × MIC, and a total kill of the population at 24 h. Therefore, alternative antimicrobial agents may be isolated from further bioassay-guided fractionation of edibles such as A. esculentus L. Moench for the treatment of H. pylori infections, especially as they are readily available.   Key words: Anti-Helicobacter pylori, Abelmoschus esculentus, fruit, kill kinetics, methanol, hexane.