Isolation and Characterization of Peptides from Momordica Charantia L. and Their Antimicrobial Assay against Bacterial Isolates of Diabetic Foot Ulcer

Abstract

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are important elements of defense system in living organisms. They are tiny, cationic, amphipathic and highly efficient. AMPs have been divided into several groups based on their size, length and structure and play vital role in bacterial, viral and fungal resistance. In diabetic patients, wound healing is a complicated and major issue because once a wound has developed, it takes a long time to recover and therapies that are used in healing are expensive. Ethno medicinal plants possess small peptides (SP) that hinder biofilm production, check bacterial growth and support metalloproteinase activity for wound healing. Therefore, by eliminating biofilms these plants pave the drugs into wound wells thereby inhibiting bacterial moieties. The present study was carried out to isolate and characterize peptides having antibacterial activity from fruits of bitter melon (Momordica charantia L.). Crude seed extract of was prepared in Phosphate Buffer Saline (PBS) and antibacterial activity was checked on Luria Bertani (LB) broth agar plates against several bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumonia, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterococcus faciealis. Seed extract was used for peptide(s) precipitation with different percentage of ammonium sulfate solution, homogeneity and molecular mass of protein fractions was determined by Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS–PAGE). Purification of isolated protein/peptide was done by Gel Filtration Chromatography (GFC) using Sephadex G-50.