ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF MICROORGANISMS PRODUCED PIGMENT ISOLATED FROM SOIL CULTIVATED BY MEDICINAL PLANTS

Abstract

The microbial communities of soil are among the most complex, diverse and important assemblages of organisms in the biosphere. They are an important source for the novel antimicrobial agents such as microbial pigments. Bacterial strains producing pigments like Bacillus sp., Pseudomonas aeuroginosa, Pseudomonas fluorescence etc., are prevalent in the soil environment, especially in root tubers and medicine plants. The present study deals with the isolation of pigment-producing bacteria from soils cultivated with medicine plants in Giza Governorate. Also, extracted pigment was tested as an antimicrobial agent against fourteen pathogenic bacteria and fungi. The isolates were confirmed by the morphological and biochemical characterizations. The pure strain was grown in King meduim broth for green pigment and after the green pigment extracted with acetone was tested against Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmomella Typhi and E. coli. Results showed the high effect of green pigment was recorded with E. coli and Salmonella Typhi followed Bacillus cereus at 300 g/ml.