Antagonistic effect of ursolic acid on Staphylococcal biofilms

The present study was carried out to study the effect of ursolic acid (UA) as a potential anti-biofilm agent in dispersing the biofilm generated by isolated from milk samples of crossbred dairy cows on the day of drying. Further, in the isolates, the presence of intracellular adherence gene locus involved in biofilm production ( ) was investigated. A total of 50 strains were isolated over a period of 3 months from 200 milk samples collected from crossbred dairy cows on the day of drying. These isolates were subjected for biofilm detection by Congo red agar (CRA), microtiter plate assay (MTP), and polymerase chain reaction specific for gene. The antagonistic effect of biofilm formation by UA was studied using different concentrations (30 µg/ml and 60 µg/ml) of UA and compared with the control group. Among the 50 subjected for biofilm detection, 34 and 40 isolates were detected as biofilm agents by CRA and MTP methods, respectively. The studies on the effect of UA in inhibiting biofilm formation by using MTP assay showed 71.5% and 48.6% inhibition at UA concentrations of 60 µg/ml and 30 µg/ml, respectively, with a significant difference (p