Allium ascalonicum Linn. and Gladiolus psittacinus Hook., are two important plants cultivated across the world for their nutritional as well as medicinal values. In the quest for a more natural bioactive substance to check the rising incidence of antimicrobial resistance amongst pathogens, these two plants were in this study, screened for activity against five common pathogens; namely, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853, Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC 35657, and Candida albicans ATCC 90029. Phytochemical screening carried out on the extracts showed the presence of secondary metabolites like saponins, cardiac glycoside, alkaloids and flavonoids in both plant samples but only Allium ascalonicum yielded essential oil, while carbohydrate and tannins were detected in Gladiolus psittacinus. While the crude extracts of Gladiolus psittacinus did not show any inhibitory potential against any of the tested organisms, three pathogens were susceptible to Allium ascalonicum, with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 100 mg/mL. Bactericidal kinetics studies on the three pathogens showed that within the exposure time of 4 hours, the organisms were killed (69% and 95% at 2 × MIC and 4 × MIC, respectively) , a result which compared well with the positive control Gentamicin. The result of this study while agreeing with earlier reports on the non-activity of Gladiolus corms against Candida albicans contradicts the same report on the activity of the crude extract of this plant against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The significant inhibitory potential of the crude methanolic extract of Allium ascalonicum against food borne pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and nosocomial pathogen such as Klebsiella pneumoniae, suggests that it can be explored as a natural alternative to chemical preservatives in food industries, and in the formulation of drugs against nosocomial infections.

A three-month-old calf was seen to have skin lesions involving the head and neck especially around the eyes. The lesions were circular, circumscribed, crusty, grayish-white and perceptibly raised above the skin. Skin scrapings and hair pullouts were aseptically collected and processed for mycology. Direct examination of hair in 20% KOH showed chains of ectothrix spores. Microscopic examination of the isolate stained with lactophenol cotton blue revealed septate hyphae with numerous clavate microconidia borne laterally from the hyphae and a single longish, thick, smooth- walled, and multi-septated macroconidia with characteristic rat tail (string bean shaped) suggestive of T. verrucosum. There was no growth on casein vitamin free agar but good growth was observed on medium containing thiamine and inositol. Information on bovine dermatophytosis from Nigeria is scanty. This finding is significant as it indicates that bovine dermatophytosis may be present in an economically important proportion among cattle especially young animals in Nigeria. The need to carry out more studies on the disease among the cattle population in the country with a view to instituting prevention and control measures was emphasized.

The existing standardized micro-broth dilution methods for in vitro testing of moulds (CLSI, EUCAST) are referred to as reference methods and therefore not intended for routine testing. They are time-consuming and dependent on sporulating hyphomycetes. In this study a new, time saving and easy-to-perform method for inoculum preparation for routine susceptibility testing has been applied. It is independent of spore production and proofed to produce comparable results to the conidia based methods, indicating that it can be used for all types of hyphae-and/or conidia-forming fungi. The MICs of amphotericin B, flucytosine, fluconazole, posaconazole, voriconazole, anidulafungin, caspofungin and micafungin of 198 moulds were determined with two different culture media (YST and RPMI 1640) according to the DIN microdilution assay, and compared to appropriate international studies. The “new” inocula with YST (DIN) and RPMI 1640 (EUCAST) medium showed similar MIC distributions for all moulds tested to the conidia method, with more than 92% of the MICs read at 24 h and 48 h within ± 1log2-dilution. Although azoles, flucytosine and amphotericin B showed comparable results, differences in echinocandin endpoints between different multicentre studies were determined. According to the literature, the minimum effective concentration (MEC) should be equivalent to the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). However, due to the encountered bias in echinocandin-endpoint determinations this has to be questioned. Evaluation of cross-resistance demonstrated that no individual strain out of 198 was in parallel susceptible to all eight antifungal agents tested. Cross-resistance between azoles, echinocandins, amphotericin B, and flucytosine could be detected quantitatively with a new method for fungi. It ranges from two to sevenfold, and demonstrates quantitatively different and species-specific susceptibility/resistance patterns.

Background: Urinary tract infection is one of the most common infections seen in both community and hospital setting in developing countries. Area specific prevalence studies aimed to gain knowledge about the type of pathogens responsible for urinary tract infection and their resistance pattern may help the clinicians to choose the correct empirical treatment. Objective: The aim of the study is to evaluate the prevalence of various uropathogens in suspected UTI patients and to find out their antimicrobial resistance pattern and long term trend. Methods: A hospital based retrospective study conducted at Department of Microbiology, Hindu Rao Hospital, New Delhi. Urine samples, collected using mid stream clean catch method over a period of nine years from clinically suspected UTI patients, from various OPDs and wards of our hospital. The samples were tested for uropathogens using standard microbiological procedures. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed on the bacterial isolates using Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method as per Clinical and Laboratory standards institute guidelines. Results: Of the 57255 samples evaluated, UTI was found in 15.6% (8921) of patients. E.coli (4838, 54.23%), and Klebsiella spp. (1905 21.35%), were the most common pathogens isolated followed by Staphylococcus spp. (746, 8.4%). A large proportion of uropathogens were resistant to common antimicrobial agents used for empirical treatment of UTI Conclusion: E.coli remained as the most common pathogen causing UTI. Nine years trend shows an increase in antimicrobial resistance levels in uropathogens. Rising level of antimicrobial resistance leaves the clinicians with limited options for empirical treatment of UTI. Periodic surveillance monitoring studies are very important to know the changing pattern of antimicrobial resistance among uropathogens, helping physicians to formulate the most effective empirical treatment of UTIs.

In this work, we investigated the critical conditions affecting isolation of actinomycetes family members. Sites thought to be rich with these bacteria were river banks, farming soils, animal farms, animal manure, bird dung, slaughter houses, and diesel contaminated soils. These were site on which sampling, profile depth, isolation procedure, and cultivation medium were tested. All these sites gave a considerable number of isolates with different criteria. The profile depth of sampling was a critical factor for the isolation. The depth of 10 cm and surface scratches were the best for such purpose. Method of isolation was found to affect isolation procedure dramatically. For the isolation of bio-active actinomycetes, the use of procedures with selective agent like phenol is recommended, whereas, using CaCo3 for this purpose in some procedures was effective in isolating distinct and separated colonies of actinomycetes. Media such as ISP4 and ISP2 are highly recommended for cultivation of newly isolated colonies, since such media were able to enhance specific criteria such pigment formation and helped these colonies to reach maturation at considerable time of incubation. The use of antifungal agents during isolation procedure was very important to obtain uncontaminated colonies, but instead of adding these agents with culture media, we found adding these agents directly on the plates before adding diluted sample from soil was very effective in eliminating fungal growth.