Bacteria Effect of date extract on different types of bacteria

Taxonomy of date

Kingdom: Plantae

Division: Magnoliophyta

Liliopsida

Order: Arecales

Family: Arecaceae

Genus: Phoenix

Species: Phoenix dactylifera

Binomial mane: Phoenix dactylifera Linn

(Bostoen 2005)

Botanical Descriptions

The date palm is known in technical terms by its botanical name Phoenix dactylifera. The properties and the composition of the date extract have been noted to have many beneficial effects in medicine as well as domestically. The following paper intends to shed light on the impact of date extracts on the different types of bacteria.

The date palm is botanically dioeciously in nature. It is a medium sized plant that has pinnate leaves and it has approximately 140 to 145 leaflets and these leaflets bears the spines by the petiole. The small yellow colored followers of the date palm are found attached directly to the spikelets that later develops to form the juicy and nutritious dates. The dates are cylindrical in shape and have a single seed and the color range varies from bright red to yellow depending on the ripeness of the fruit and the variety (Woods 2004).

Properties of Phoenix Dactylifera (Date)

The dates are domestically consumed and found cultivated in the Arabian countries. Owing to the favorability of climate the growth of date palm is observed on a large scale in these countries. Apart from the Arabian countries dates are widely consumed throughout the world. The medical professionals and the microbiologist have decoded the two major benefits of the date extract, which is the antioxidant and anti-mutagenic properties of date extract in vitro. The microbiologists have come across the fact that the aqueous extract of the dry dates has the quantity dependent property to inhibit the superoxide and the hydroxyl radicals. It is acknowledged that in the method of riboflavin photo reduction the amount of fresh extract that is used to scavenge the superoxide radical (50%) is equivalent to the 0.7 to 0.8 mg/ml of dry date extract. Similarly in the deoxyribose degradation method the dry date extract required to scavenging 50% hydroxyl radical amounted to 2.0 to 2.2 mg/ml. It is therefore observed that 1.5 to 2.0 mg/ml and 4.0 to 4.2mg/ml concentrations of the date extract has the potency to respectively inhibit superoxide and hydroxyl radicals. Similarly it is also identified as the property of the water-based date extract that it has a potency to inhibit the lipid per oxidation as well as the protein oxidation in the quality dependent aqueous forms. The 50% inhibition of the lipid per oxide was observed in a Fe2+/ascorbate system by 1.9 mg/ml of the date extract. During the time span of inhibiting the lipid per oxide the 2.0 mg/ml date extract was observed to inhibit the TBARS completely, that were found in the early stages of the incubation and the tendency of inhibition gradually increased in the later stages of the incubation period of lipid per oxide study. In the similar manner in the high Fe2+/ascorbate induction system a 2.3 mg/ml concentration of the date extract inhibited carbonyl formation that was measured by DNPH reaction at 50% concentration. The study of the concentration of date extract by 4.0 to 4.5 mg/ml indicated that the lipid per oxide and protein carbonyl formation was completely inhibited. The date extracts also showed the tendency of quantity based inhibition of benzo (a)pyrene-induced muta-genecity on Salmonella tester strains TA-98 and TA-100 with metabolic activation. It has also been observed to the property of date extract to inhibit the His+ revertant formation in TA-98 and TA-100, respectively by 50% simply by 3.6mg/plate and 4.3mg/plate. These properties of the date extract conclude that the antioxidant and the anti-mutagenic activities of the date extract have high functional potency as a medication as well as food item. And this is implied by the presence of compounds with potent free-radical-scavenging activity. Hence this can be mounted that the date extract has a high tendency to be used a medication. The composition of the dates extract when segregated yields the following elements. (Bringeus 2003)

Inorganic constituents of dates

(mg / 100 g dry weight)

Element

Halawy

Sayer

Potassium

Sodium

37.0

38.0

Calcium

65.0

97.0

Magnesium

71.0

79.0

Phosphorus

84.0

63.0

Iron

3.7

3.1

Aluminum

5.1

Copper

0.2

0.2

Sulfur

52.0

59.0

Manganese

3.3

4.6

Silicon

66.0

66.0

Chlorine

27.0

31.0

The photochemistry of dates

The photo chemical details of the date plant indicate that the plant has a rich quantity of carbohydrates, alkaloids, steroids, flavonoids,...

Cinnamic acid including ferulic, sinapic and coumaric acids and their derivatives, which include 5-o-caffeoylshikimic acid also called as dactyliferic acid are also present in an ample amount, apart from that flavonoid glycosides are also available in a dense supple including luteolin, methyl luteolin, quercetin, and methyl quercetin), flavanols (catechin, epicatechin. The date extract upon decoding also revealed the presence of the four types of free phenolic acids that are protocatechuic acid, vanillic acid, syringic acid, and ferulic acid. The nine bounded phenolic acids were also found to be available including gallic acid, protocatechuic acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, vanillic acid, caffeic acid, syringic acid, p-coumaric acid, ferulic acid, and o-coumaric acid. The TLC (Thin Layer Chromatography) also revealed the astonishing aspect of the date extract; it mentioned the presence of some useful natural steroids including cholesterol, stigmasterol, campesterol and ?-sitosterol. Anthocyanins. The similar thin layer chromatography presented the findings that the date extract also contains an ample amount of carotenoid pigments in the form of lutein and carotene. The gas liquid analysis and chromatography of the date extract further revealed that the of oleic, lauric, palmitic, Capric, myristic, myristoleic, palmitoleic, stearic, linoleic and linolenic acids are also present in the date extract. At a minimum the date extract depending on the ripeness of the fruit contains six vitamins and a small plunge of vitamin C, and vitamins B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), nicotinic acid (niacin) and vitamin A the date extract also have the traces of the natural enzymes in there isolated forms including phytase, invertase and peroxidase. The indications for the presence of ?-amirin, triterpenoids saponins and a crude gonadotropic substance have also been reported on the basis of the ripeness of the fruit from which the extract has been yielded (Kapp 1994).
The pharmacological aspect of the date extract

In the prevailing era of biotechnology and pharmacology the date extract has been tested against a number of disease causing bacterial activities. When we come to that remarkable historical phenomenon --in which a hitherto obscure race of nomads, under the stimulus of a new religion, burst forth upon the ancient and decadent civilisations from the Pillars of Hercules to the Indus and imposed their own beautiful and flexible language upon other races and even other religions -- we do not find at first that enlightened appreciation of science that afterwards distinguished many of the rulers in Islam. It was not until the division of the caliphate in the eighth century between Bagdad and Cordova that the obscurantism that had characterised early Mohammedanism -- as it had occurred before with early Christianity and was to occur long after with early Protestantism -- was to give way to a love of knowledge for its own sake (Wright 2008).

In the Medicean Library at Florence there was an Arabic manuscript compendium of medicine, with a treatise on the properties and names of plants used as remedies, compiled as early as A.D. 718 from Hippocrates by Ahmed Ben Ibraham, physician to the Ommayad Caliph Yazid II. In the Royal Library in Paris there was another, dated 743, by a monk named Ebn Abu Zaher, who seems to have travelled extensively. The Caliph Abdurrahman I ( A.D. 755-88) laid out a botanical garden at Cordova, caused rare seeds to be collected by travellers in Syria and other parts of Asia, and planted the first Date-palm to be grown in Spain

The summary and findings of these points are enlisted below.

The anti-mutagenic effect of date extract

The extract of the date pulp / fruit is considered as the producer of the dose / quantity and intake depended tendency that inhibits benzopyrene-induced mutagenicity on Salmonella tester strains TA-98 and TA-100 primarily by means of its metabolic activation property. It has also been noted in the mutagenic traits of the date extract that the extract that is concentrated by 3.6 mg/plate and that of 4.3mg/plate concentration has the tendency of 50% inhibition of His+ reverting formation in TA-98 and TA-100 respectively. This indicates the potency of the date extract as a strong anti-mutagenic agent (Michalak and Trocki 2006).

The date extract as an antioxidant

The photochemical analysis of the date extract reveals that it owns an ample potency to act and behave potently as an antioxidant. This photochemical property can be linked up with the lower incidence and lower mortality rates of degenerative diseases in human. The vitro as well as vivo oxidation properties have also been functionally observed to be carried out on the extract of dates with varying ripeness and colors.

The medical professionals and the microbiologist have decoded the two major benefits of the date extract, which is the antioxidant and anti-mutagenic properties of date extract in vitro. The microbiologists have come across the fact that the aqueous extract of the dry dates has the quantity dependent property to inhibit the superoxide and the hydroxyl radicals. It is acknowledged that in the method of riboflavin…