Antimicrobial Profile of the Selected Medicinal Plants

Abstract

Plant extracts represent a continuous effort to find new compound against pathogens. The methanolic extracts of twenty plants were applied against bacteria ( Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella typhi ) and fungi ( Alterneria alternata (479) and Fusarium oxysporum (899). It is observed that overall herbs were more potent as compare to trees axcept Albezia which gives 90 percent inhibition against the three bacterial pathogens. Albezia lebax showed excellent results against the tested bacterial pathogens with 20 mm, 17mm and 19mm zone of inhibition respectively and the antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli was 13 mm by Parthenium hysterophorous and the lowest was 7 mm by Spinosa while the rest of the plants extract show no significant activities. For the Staphylococcus aureus the highest zone was 7 mm by Withania coagulans and the lowest was 5 mm by Spinosa while other extract were inactive. For Salmonella the highest activity was 8 mm that was shown by Parthenium hysterophorous and the lowest was 5 mm.The results showed that the plant extracts of Withania coagulans , Spinosa and Datura inoxia give highest inhibition of 20 mm against the Alterneria Alternata (479) while the lowest activity were noted for the Plantago ovata (10mm). The antifungal activity of Parthenium hysterophorous , Rumex hastus , Rumex species, Malvia palvefura , Chenopodium and Aerva javanica were noted to be 15 mm, 14mm, 12mm, 13mm, 17mm and 15mm respectively against Alterneria Alternata (479). The plant extract of Parthenium hysterophorous showed highest inhibition of 9 mm against Fusarium oxysporum (899). The extract of Rumex hastus , Rumex species and Spinosa showed inhibition of 6mm, 4mm and 2mm respectively. The plant extracts have a positive effect against some of the tested bacterial and fungal pathogens. These plant extracts may be further used for isolation of compounds for antibiotic preparations through HPLC and mass spectroscopy.