ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF MORINGA OLEIFERA AGAINST MULTIDRUG-RESISTANT STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS ISOLATED FROM RAW MILK

The objective of the study was to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of aqueous and ethanolic Moringa oleifera leaf, stem and seed extracts against multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from raw milk in Hidalgo Mexico in 2017. The conventional method was used to identify and isolate S. aureus. All isolates were screened for antibiotic sensitivity to 12 antibiotics using the disk-diffusion method, in order to select twenty multidrug-resistant strains. The antimicrobial activity of the M. oleifera leaf, stem and seed extracts (aqueous and ethanolic) was tested using the disk-diffusion agar method, with penicillin used as a positive control. Sixty-five S. aureus strains were isolated from 56% of the raw milk sample, with an average count of 4.5 x 10(5) CFU/ml, this is considered as a potential public health risk. All the S. aureus strains exhibited resistance to at least two antibiotics. Sixty-five strains exhibited resistance to penicillin and ampicillin. In contrast, all showed sensitivity to ciprofloxacin. Ethanol extract exhibited a higher degree of antimicrobial activity compared to the aqueous extracts and penicillin. This reveals that the leaves, stems and seeds of M. oleifera could be an alternative for the control of infections caused by S. aureus in humans and cows with mastitis.