In vitro antimicrobial activity of Ruta chalepensis methanol extracts against the cariogenic Streptococcus mutans

Bulkholderia pseudomallei, the pathogeny of melioidosis, is naturally occurring in soil and water in epidemic regions. The environmental distribution of B. pseudomallei is still unclear, as indeed is the global distribution of B. pseudomallei. To detect B. pseudomallei in epidemic regionsa double antibodies sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA) was developed to detect B. pseudomallei in soil cultures directly using two monoclonal antibodies (Mab) specific to recombinant truncated flagellin of B. pseudomallei. The method was evaluated by detecting the 154 soil samples collected from the Guangxi region in China where the endemic of melioidosis is. The results indicated that the sandwich ELISA method is not only faster than culture method which is the gold standard for B. pseudomallei detection in soil, but also a more sensitive method. It provides a new tool to detect B. pseudomallei in soil samples and is applicable for large screening studies to assess the distribution of B. pseudomallei in the endemic of melioidosis. Key words: Burkholderia pseudomallei, melioidosis, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), soil sample.