Cytotoxic and Antibacterial Activities of Fermented and Non-fermented Extracts of Garlic

Background and Allium sativum belongs to the Liliaceae family and is widely used in folk medicine. Antibacterial, anticancer and antioxidant activity of this genus have been previously reported. Current study, aimed at investigating the cytotoxic and antibacterial activity of fermented and non-fermented extracts of A. sativum on breath cancer cells (MCF7), lymphocyte cells, and some pathogenic bacteria.
MCF-7 and lymphocyte cells were maintained in DMEM and RPMI medium supplemented with 10% Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS), respectively. Cytotoxic effect of the methanol extracts of fermented and non-fermented garlics was measured on MCF7 at different concentrations (6.25, 12.5, 25, 50, 75, 100, 150, 200, 300, 350, 400, 450, 500 μg/ml) using MTT assay. The antibacterial properties of these extracts were also investigated against Staphylococcus saprophyticus, Proteus mirabilis, and Escherichia coli by disk diffusion.
The garlic fermented by Lactobacillus plantarum, strain1745, showed the highest cytotoxic activity (CC50 400µg/ml) compared to strain 1058 (CC50 450µg/ml) and natural flora (CC50 >500µg/ml). We observed a significant relationship between the flavonoid contents of garlic and cytotoxic activity (P value This study showed that lacto fermented garlic extract might be a good candidate against breast cancer cells and pathogenic bacteria.