Diversity, antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of culturable bacterial endophyte communities in Aloe vera

Twenty-nine culturable bacterial endophytes were isolated from surface-sterilized tissues (root, stem and leaf) of Aloe vera and molecularly characterized to 13 genera: Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Enterobacter, Pantoea, Chryseobacterium, Sphingobacterium, Aeromonas, Providencia, Cedecea, Klebsiella, Cronobacter, Macrococcus and Shigella. The dominant genera include Bacillus (20.7%), Pseudomonas (20.7%) and Enterobacter (13.8%). The crude and ethyl acetate fractions of the metabolites of six isolates, species of Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Chryseobacterium and Shigella, have broad spectral antimicrobial activities against pathogenic Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Salmonella Typhimurium, Proteus vulgaris, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, Streptococcus pyogenes and Candida albicans, with inhibition zones ranging from 6.0 ± 0.57 to 16.6 ± 0.57 mm. In addition, 80% of the bacterial endophytes produced 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) with scavenging properties of over 75% when their crude metabolites were compared with ascorbic acid (92%). In conclusion, this study revealed for the first time the endophytic bacteria communities from A. vera (Pseudomonas hibiscicola, Macrococcus caseolyticus, Enterobacter ludwigii, Bacillus anthracis) that produce bioactive compounds with high DPPH scavenging properties (75-88%) and (Bacillus tequilensis, Pseudomonas entomophila, Chryseobacterium indologenes, Bacillus aerophilus) that produce bioactive compounds with antimicrobial activities against bacterial pathogens. Hence, we suggest further investigation and characterization of their bioactive compounds.