Comparative antimicrobial potential of Tribhuvana-Mishrana and its ingredients against clinical bacteria

There are many single drug and compound formulations prescribed for Jwara (~ fever) in Ayurvedic classics. Tribhuvanakirti Rasa (TKR), Godanti Bhasma (GB) and Sudarshana Ghana Vati (SGV) are widely used compound formulations that are separately indicated for the treatment of Jwara (~fever) in different dosage schedules. In Ayurvedic Formulary of India Tribhuvana-Mishrana (TM) has been chiefly indicated in treatment of Sarva Jwara (~ fever). Therefore, in this study comparative antimicrobial activity of TM and its individual ingredients viz. TKR, GB and SGV were evaluated against four fever-causing microbes such as gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus and the gram-negative bacteria Salmonella typhii, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The aqueous extract of all the four samples (formulation as whole and the three individual ingredients separately) in a dose 125mcg/ml were tested for their antimicrobial activity against four different microbes by agar well diffusion method. The study shows that TM and its ingredients independently show significant antimicrobial activity. S. aureus was found to be most sensitive to SGV and moderately sensitive to TKR and TM while S. typhii was found to be most sensitive to TM as compared to others. TKR was found to be most effective against E.coli while SGV and TM both showed significant antimicrobial effect against E. coli. TM could provide an alternative to synthetic antibiotics against human microbial infections.