Recently there has been an increasing interest in extracting relevant natural antimicrobial agents as potent as the chemical antibiotics to be used as an alternative approach for controlling growth of microorganisms. Pomegranate (Punica granatum) has taken great attention for its potent antimicrobial agent, in this study pomegranate homemade and market syrup (molasses) were tested for their antibacterial activity against 13 bacterial strains varying between gram positive bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 , MRSA ATCC 12498 , MRSA ATCC 3345, Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633, Streptococcus pyogenes ATCC 19615, Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 29212, Staphylococcus xylosis cilinical isolate, Streptococcus pneumoniae ATCC 6303, Streptococcus viridians clinical isolate and gram negative bacteria namely Escherishia coli ATCC 25922, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853, Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC 700603 and Salmonella sp. Agar well diffusion technique revealed the highest antibacterial activity of pomegranate syrup to be reported against E.coli, S. aureus, S. xylosus, Bacillus subtilis respectively. Viable cell count and cell wall alteration were observed with time incubation assay particularly with S. aureus and E. coli after being incubated in pomegranate syrup at 37°C at different time intervals and examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). HPLC with total flavonoids and total phenolic content revealed that the major chemical component of pomegranate syrup is gallic acid to which potent antibacterial activity, decreasing viable cell count and structural alteration could be related.
