Screening of medicinal plants of Himachal Pradesh for efflux pump inhibitory activity against Escherichia coli

Rapid increase of multidrug resistance in bacteria has made the discovery of new antimicrobials necessary. From the time of discovery of bacterial efflux pumps in 1980, many bacteria have been characterized as multi drug resistant. Efflux pumps expel out the antibiotics and other resistance modifying compounds and dyes. Antibiotic resistance developed very quickly due to the changes in expression of efflux pumps. Mechanism of efflux has wildly known as major constituent of resistance in many classes of antibiotics. Multidrug resistance related to efflux is a major factor by which bacteria lowers the effect of antibacterial agents. It is therefore necessary that new antibiotics and efflux pump inhibitor are discovered. The bacterial efflux pump inhibitor helps in the reuse of antibiotics which are therapeutically ineffective. In the present study we study 15 medicinal plants for their efflux pump inhibitory activity against E. coli bacteria.