The effect of various concentrations of peganum harmala whole plant and seeds extract on luminescent light output of a bacterial biosensor

Shima Shayestehpour,1,* Mansour mashreghi,2

1. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
2. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

Abstract

Introduction

Herbal plants have been used to prevent or treat many diseases, but these plants are not harmless. peganum harmala is used as an antiseptic and is used to treat lung and liver diseases and to treat eczema. microbiological biosensors play an important role to analyze the environmental toxicants. by using genetic recombination techniques, microbial biosensors can be designed. one of these genes is the lux gene, which is used in the bioluminescence marker system. in this research, the side effect of hydro-alcoholic extract of peganum harlama and its seeds was studied on e.coli sm10 s1 luminescent biosensor.

Methods

Hydro-alcoholic extract of peganum harmala and its seeds was prepared by soxhlet method and various concentrations (0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1 %) were prepared. 50 μl of the biosensor were mixed with 450 μl of different concentrations of the extracts and the bioluminescence light was measured by a luminometer.

Results

The results showed a slight increase in the luminescence light at the concentrations of 0.001 and 0.01% of peganum harmala whole plant extract, and the luminescence light decreased at the concentrations of 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1%, which the lowest was at 0.5% concentration. the results indicated a slight increase in luminescence light at the concentration of 0.001% of the seeds extract and the reduction in other concentrations was dose-dependent.

Conclusion

: in this study we found that e. coli sm10 s1 biosensor application in examining the side effects of various concentrations of p. harmala whole plants and seeds extract is an appropriate method and can be further used for other medicinal plants.

Keywords

Peganum harmala, microbial biosensor, luminescence