Research Article
Investigating the Antiphage Activity of the Methanolic Extract of Aegle marmelos against Lactic Acid Bacteriophages
Mulay R and Bhathena Z*
Department of Microbiology, Bhavan’s College, Andheri West, Mumbai, India
*Corresponding author:Zarine P Bhathena, Department of Microbiology, Bhavan’s College, Andheri West, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.Email Id: zarine_bhathena@rediffmail.com
Copyright: ©Mulay R, et al. 2025. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Article Information:Submission: 02/01/2025; Accepted: 29/01/2025; Published: 04/02/2025
Abstract
Bacteriophages are common nuisance viruses that cause tremendous loss to the dairy industry by lysing lactic acid bacteria. Thus, an intervention using inclusion of ayurvedic herbs to prevent such lysis of potential lactic acid bacterial strains was set up. In this study, a thorough phytochemical analysis
of methanolic extract of Aegle marmelos leaf powder undertaken showed the presence of major groups of secondary metabolitesin the extract while LCMS and GCMS identified various bioactive compounds in it. Antiphage assay using crude methanolic extractdemonstrated a significant reduction in P001 phage with a log reduction of 0.0846 ± 0.083 after 20 min of exposure and 0.708 ± 0.081 after 90 min of exposure for the extract without inhibiting the probiotic host culture. These findings offer valuable insights into the extract’s potential for protecting the viability of the probiotic host culture in dairy applications.
Keywords:Antiphage Activity; Bael; Lactococcus lactis; Dairy Bacteriophages