Effect of Natural Surface Secretes of Some Common Ornamental Plants Leaves on Pathogenic Micro-Organisms

Submission Track Abstract This study presents the antimicrobial effect of natural surface secretes of some common ornamental plants leaves (Ficus elastica, Philodendrom bipinnatifidum and Aglonema) on some pathogenic bacteria (Escherichia coli, P. aeruginosa and Staph. Aureus), and fungi (Microsporum gypseum and Aspergillus flavus). It is concluded that all tested washing water of the plants leaves secretes exhibited various inhibitory effects, both Philodendrom bipinnatifidum and Aglonema commutatum have exhibited more antibacterial activity than Ficus elastica. While both E. coli and P. aeruginosa are more sensitive than Staph. aureus. The same inhibitory effects are observed when the plants leaves inoculated in their surface with pathogenic bacteria. In contrast to bacterial inhibitory effects, the washing water of natural surface secretes of tested ornamental plants leaves induced mycelium growth of both tested fungi. Microsporum gypseum mycelium growth induced more than Aspergillus flavus especially in case of the washing water of Ficus elastic that has the highest effects at 7.5/500 mL of medium. This study concludes that the uses of ornamental plants for the indoors and outdoors to control the growth of pathogenic microbes and problems associated with hospital. Received : 2/4/2017 Final Revision : 1/6/2017


Introduction
The world we live in is full of synthetic chemicals, most of which are toxic. They are encountered from our food to all the objects we touch. The "technology toxins" stalk inside your house, and the situation is nastier than you could imagine. The insidious aspect is that these toxins poison you most of the time, including while you are sleeping. Other indoor contaminants should be more obvious for you are microbial [1]. Human depended on many techniques to control these pollutants in situation life hospital, manufactures etc. The cultivation of plants was good oxygen resource and provide good psychological environment. Plants have an almost limitless ability to synthesize aromatic substances, most of which are phenols or their oxygen-substituted derivatives. Most are secondary metabolites, of which at least 12,000 have been isolated, a number estimated to be less than 10% of the total. In many cases, these substances serve as plant defense mechanisms against predation by microorganisms, insects and herbivores. Some, such as terpenoids, give plants their odors; others (quinines and tannins) are responsible for plant pigment. Many compounds are responsible for plant flavor (e.g., the terpenoid capsaicin from chili peppers), and some of the same herbs and spices used by humans to season food yield useful medicinal compounds [2].
Studies showed that Escherichia coli causes UTI (urinary tract infection), diarrhea and septicemia. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a gram negative rod shaped bacterium which is a common cause of hospital acquired infections including burns and wound infections. The problems associated with hospital infection caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa have become increasingly evident. The ability of this opportunistic human pathogen to acquire resistance to a broad range of antibiotics has made effective therapy more difficult [3]. Similar to fungal infections, they need new antifungal agents' continuation. Drug companies continue to focus on the development of antimicrobial drugs, especially with the increasing emergence of drugresistant pathogens. Natural products are just one source of antimicrobial agents among today's world of chemical libraries and combinational syntheses, but they offer an almost unlimited reservoir of unique structures [4].
The aim of the present is to improve the antimicrobial effect of natural surface secretion of some common ornamental plants leaves for the indoors and outdoors to control the growth of pathogenic microbes.

Materials and Methods
Ornamental plants: Three most popular ornamental plants are chose for investigation including: Ficus elastica, Philodendrom bipinnatifidum and Aglonema commutatum.

Bacterial Isolates
Three clinical bacterial isolates of Eschrechia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus are collected from patients in Rizgary and Komary Hospital in Hawler city. All isolates are identified manually and morphologically [5]. Each bacterial isolate was activated in nutrient broth (Oxoid) at 37°C for 18-24 h then appropriate dilutions (10-1-10-5) are prepared using sterilized peptone water 0.1%. While two pathogenic fungal genera, Microsporum gypseum isolated from patient with dermatophyte infection, and Aspergillus flavus isolated from the soil are identified depending on macroscopic and microscopic examination of the culture isolates [6,7].

Determination of Antibacterial Activity of the Plants
(1) Washing leaves: Leaves of each plant are cleaned and washed thoroughly by sterile distilled water (SDW) and left in ordinary room. Three days later the leaves of each plant washed with SDW and the solution obtained from the washing of each plant was screened for the antibacterial activity by welldiffusion method Muller Hinton medium (Hi-media India) was prepared and poured into sterile Petri-dishes to a depth of 4 mm, five pores each of 7 mm in diameter are made by a sterile cork-hole. The plates are inoculated with test bacteria by a sterile cotton swabs which dipped into diluted bacterial suspension (10-4), using a micropipette 200 µL of the solution is added to these pores and the plates are incubated at 37°C for 18-24 h then the diameter of inhibition zones was measured in millimeter using a ruler [8].
(2) Inoculation of leaves: The whole leaf of each plant was inoculated with each of tested bacteria by a cotton swab after dipping into a bacterial cells suspension dilution (10-4). The plants are let at room temperature for 24 h.
(3) After 24 h the leaves are swabbed again after moistening with SDW and inoculated on appropriate media of each bacterial isolate. The plates are incubated at 37°C for 24 h. The results are recorded by counting numbers of bacteria remained and compared with initial dilution of (10-4).

Determination of Antifungal Activity of the Plants
The spore suspensions of selected fungi are prepared by adding 10 mL of sterile distilled water (SDW) on fungal plate culture media. Then spores are scraped by using sterile glass rod, later the spores suspension was transferred in to small sterile vial and mixed by magnetic stirrer (Gallenkamp /England) for 10 minutes. The spores are quantified using Hemocytometer, light microscope, and adjusted to ideal concentration (1 × 106 spores/mL). Then the spores are inoculated to the Petri dishes which contained washing water of the plants. Three replications are done for each concentration and incubated at 30°C for optimum period for each fungus [9].

Results and Discussion
The results in Table 1  can be observed, Philodendron bipinnatifidum and Aglonema commutatum exhibit more inhibitory effect than Ficus elastica which may be due to the difference in the amount of active inhibitory compounds excreted by each plant. Furthermore in a comparison between the effects of each plant on each test bacterial isolate as shown in Table 2, it is clear that E. coli and P. aeruginosa showed more sensitivity than Staph. aureus which exhibited least sensitivity. From the results obtained it can be concluded that all tested pathogenic bacteria are affected negatively when grew with the ornamental plants, thus it may be helpful to use ornamental plants in hospitals as an adjutant in the treatment of bacterial infections. Table 3 shows the effects of leaves washing water of Ficus elastica, Aglaonema commutatum, Philodendron bipinnatifidum on the mycelium growth (MG) of A. flavus. From these results it appears that the washing water of the plants have proven to possess positive effect on the MG of A. flavus, since mycelium growth mean of A. flavus increased with increasing the volume of washing water in compare with control, and had higher effect at 7.5/500mL of the medium.. While the washing water of the Philodendron bipinnatifidum has the highest effect compared to other plants especially at 7.5/500 mL of the medium after 7 days of incubation at 30°C. Table 4 shows the effect results of different concentrations of washing water of ornamental plants.

Conclusion
In conclusion, the washing water of the ornamental plants had higher positive effect on increasing the mycelium growth of M. gypseum compared to their effects on the A. flavus, especially Ficus elastica.