828-830The
antipsychotic drug, prochlorperazine (Pcp), was tested for its antimicrobial
efficacy against 103 strains belonging to both gram positive and gram negative
bacteria. The drug was found to possess maximum activity against Staphylococcus
aureus, Vibrio cholerae and Shigella spp. Pcp was moderately
active against E. coli but most of the strains belonging to Bacillus
spp, Klebsiella spp, Salmonella spp and Lactobacillus spp
were found to be resistant to this drug. The drug was tested for its mode of
anti bacterial activity against Shigella dysenteriae 1 and it was found
to be bacteriostatic in action. In in vivo studies, Pcp offered
significant protection to Swiss albino mice at concentrations of 0.75 μg/g (P<0.01)
and 1.5 μg/g (P) body weight when challenged with 50 median
lethal dose of Salmonella typhimurium NCTC 74. Thus the result depicts
that prochlorperazine may emerge as a strong antimicrobial drug to replace the
conventional antibiotics and to overcome
the problem of drug
resistance.</span