The antibacterial effect of camellia sinensis extract on bacterias, conjunctivitis in vitro

Conjunctivitis is one of the most prevalent ophthalmic diseases. The most feasible treatment of that is using antibiotics. According to arising bacterial resistance to usual antibiotics and their side effects, and using of tea as a healing for ophthalmic diseases base on the traditional beliefs, this study was done to evaluate the antibacterial effect of tea on conjunctivitis diseases.

In this experimental study, patients suffering from conjunctivitis were sampled from the ophthalmology clinic in Shahrekord, Iran. Samples were transferred to the microbiology lab and were subjected to differential culture media and diagnostic tests. Ten samples from each group (totally 30) were isolated from each of the three bacteria including S. aureus, S. epidermidis and S. pneumonia. These strains were separately tested using the pour plate technique with different dilutions of black tea extract. In addition, antibiograms were performed using standard antibiotic disks including vancomycin, Chloramphenicol, Oxacillin, Cefazolin and Ciprofloxacin. Data were analyzed using Chi square, t test and ANOVA.

Findings of this study showed that tea extract had a dose dependant inhibatory effects on bacterial growth (P<0.05). This antibacterial effect exists in densities of 50. This effect had a rise in shifting from 50 to 100 mg/ml (P<0.05).

According to this study's findings and comparison with similar previous studies, we might suggest tea extract as an antibacterial drug in conjunctivitis