Antibacterial effects of passion fruit uncovered by UG researcher

The University of Guyana may be close to patenting an antibacterial treatment from passion fruit based on research conducted by Professor Raymond Jagessar of the Department of Chemistry.

Dr Raymond Jagessar
Dr Raymond Jagessar

Dr Jagessar and his team were among the eight groups provided with a grant under the US$10 million World Bank funded University of Guyana Science and Technology Support Project in 2014.

Jagessar’s team conducted a study into the “antimicrobial activities of selected fruits and vegetables against selective pathogenic micro-organisms.”

Jagessar told Stabroek News that he was motivated to conduct research into natural treatments in light of the large number of permanent side effects caused by synthetic drugs that are widely used. “People are using synthetic drugs but these have a lot of irreversible side effects. If we could find a fruit that can perform the same jobs, it will be great; it will have little to no side effects because it is edible,” he said.

After conducting several months of in vitro (laboratory) tests, the research team was able to conclude that the commonly used passion fruit has several antimicrobial properties. In fact, this particular fruit has displayed resistance to all pathogenic microorganism it has been tested against. It, however, appears to selectively target particular microorganism. “Even a meal enriched with this fruit can combat the microorganism, just like you drink cherry juice or a lot of citrus to fight a cold,” he noted.

According to Jagessar, the research on passion fruit involved the use of the ethanol and aqueous extract in the absence and presence of additives as natural antibiotics against human pathogens E. coli, S. aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumonia, and Candida albicans.

The Passion Fruit
The Passion Fruit

“In the absence of the additives, the ethanolic extract showed the highest antimicrobial potency against Candida albicans, a fungus that is noteworthy to induce Athletes Foot. Antimicrobial activity seems to increase as the concentration of the fruit extract increases, suggesting consuming more of the fruit will increase its antimicrobial potency,” he explained.

“In the presence of the additives, the fruit extract showed the highest antimicrobial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Selective antimicrobial activity was also observed for the fruit extracts in the presence and absence of additives. The ethanolic extract showed antimicrobial selectivity against Staphylococcus aureus over Klebsiella Pneumonia,” Jagessar added.

This discovery, according to the lead researcher, is even more groundbreaking since he believes that the status of passion fruit as a commonly used product negates the need for clinical trials, the cost of which could prove prohibitive.

Though he is excited by the results, Jagessar is disappointed that his research was limited in some ways. “There are multi-resistant strains of bacteria which we were unable to test. The Health Ministry was not comfortable with us testing these strains as it could’ve caused much damage. I would’ve also liked to test it on viral diseases, such as HIV. Or even diabetes,” he explained.

After submitting his findings to the University of Guyana, Jagessar is patiently waiting for the administration to either publish his findings or patent the treatment and then publish the results of his research. “We need to make the public aware of what fruit can do,” he stressed.

Vice-Chancellor Jacob Opadeyi has already expressed the university’s intention to first patent the treatment and then publish the findings of the research.