The synergistic effect of capsicum aqueous extract (Capsicum annuum) and chitosan against multidrug-resistant bacteria

Objectives: This study investigated the effects of chitosan, capsicum and chitosan and capsicum com-bined (Capsicum annuum) on Gram-positive pathogenic bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus, and Gram-negative bacteria, such as Salmonella typhimurium and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.Methods: The obtained extracts were categorised as chitosan, capsicum and chitosan and capsicum com-bined. The antimicrobial action of the extracts was determined by the inhibition zone compared to the control. Antimicrobial bioassays using S. typhimurium, P. aeruginosa and S. aureus were performed on the extracts.Results: The antimicrobial profiles showed that the chitosan and capsicum combined possessed antimi-crobial effects. This is mostly attributed to the high concentration of components that possess antibacte-rial action. The growth of bacterial pathogens was inhibited by all samples of capsicum with chitosan, but the largest inhibition zone was against S. typhimurium (18 mm) with a capsicum and chitosan concentra-tion of 10 mg/ml.Conclusion: The combination of chitosan and capsicum can be effective against pathogenic bacteria. This is an innovative approach to enhancing these extracts' antibacterial activity. Further investigation is required to explore further aspects of these extracts' antimicrobial activity against pathogenic bacteria. The observed results showed that chitosan and capsicum were more active against S. aureus.(c) 2022 King Faisal University. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).