An investigation on antimicrobial potency of coelomic fluid of earthworm Eudrilus eugeniae

Development of microbial resistance to various existing antimicrobial drugs has become a serious public health concern and the search for new classes of antimicrobial agents is a challenging task. The antimicrobial activity of the coelomic fluid (CF) obtained from Eudrilus eugeniae was investigated against five bacterial strains as well as four fungal strains using disc diffusion method to verify its claimed pharmaceutical use in the treatment of many infections. 75µl of coelomic fluid exhibited strongest antibacterial activity against Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Klebsiella pneumoniae, and antifungal activity against Candida albicans. This inhibitory effect of CF was compared with the commercial antibiotics like Ciprofloxacin and Fluconazole. For the antimicrobial screening, five species of bacterial isolate and four species of fungal isolates were selected. The bacterial cultures were used for antimicrobial testing maintained on nutrient agar slant and the fungal strains were maintained on Sabouraud dextrose agar slant at 4oC. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined using micro dilution broth method. The MIC results indicated that CF at a dose of 200µl for bacteria and 100µl for fungi was found to be minimum concentration to inhibit the growth of selected pathogenic bacteria and fungi. The results of the present investigation indicates that the CF of E.eugeniae has a significant capacity of antibacterial and antifungal activities, which makes them interesting for screening CF of E.eugeniae as natural product.