Abstract
In this study, the antibacterial activity of ethanolic extract from the leaves of four Rutaceae species, including Acronychia pedunculata, Clausena excavata, Glycosmis pentaphylla and Luvunga scandens, were performed using the agar disk diffusion method for the first time. The ethanolic extracts from the leaves of A. pedunculata and G. pentaphylla were able to resist against all six bacterial strains with zones of inhibition for Bacillus cereus (17.3±2.1 mm, 20.8±1.0 mm) Staphylococcus aureus (8.5±0.5 mm, 17.6±0.3 mm) Escherichia coli (16.7±2.1 mm, 15.3±1.2 mm), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (11.7±0.6 mm, 14.0±1.7 mm), Salmonella enteritidis (22.3±0.6 mm, 24.6±0.5 mm) and Salmonella typhimurium (9.5±0.9 mm, 8.3±0.6 mm). On the other hand, the ethanolic extract of C. excavata leaf was resistant to B. cereus (12.3±0.6 mm), S. aureus (11.6±0.5 mm), E. coli (11.5±2.1 mm), P. aeruginosa (10.6±0.3 mm) while B. cereus (8.2±0.3 mm), S. aureus (9.3±0.6 mm), E. coli (8.5±0.5 mm) and S. typhimurium (8.3±0.6 mm) were inhibited by the ethanolic extract of L. scandens leaf. This study could provide necessary information for further application of these species in medicine.
Highlights
Medicinal plants are rich source of antimicrobial agents
The ethanolic extracts from the leaves of A. pedunculata and G. pentaphylla were able to resist against all six bacterial strains with zones of inhibition for Bacillus cereus (17.3±2.1 mm, 20.8±1.0 mm) Staphylococcus aureus (8.5±0.5 mm, 17.6±0.3 mm) Escherichia coli (16.7±2.1 mm, 15.3±1.2 mm), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (11.7±0.6 mm, 14.0±1.7 mm), Salmonella enteritidis (22.3±0.6 mm, 24.6±0.5 mm) and Salmonella typhimurium (9.5±0.9 mm, 8.3±0.6 mm)
The diameters of inhibition zones of ethanol extract of A. pedunculata leaves against S. enteritidis, B. cereus, E. coli, P. aeruginosa, S. typhimurium and S. aureus were
Summary
Medicinal plants are rich source of antimicrobial agents. The potential of vascular plants as a source for a new medicine is still largely unexplored. A small percentage have been recorded phytochemically among the estimated about 500000 species [1] in which the medicinal aspects and antimicrobial agents of Rutaceae plants were investigated by some previous studies [2, 3]. Members of Rutaceae are important for their natural resources providing many useful products, such as food, medicines, spices and essential oil etc [5, 6]. Many biologically-active compounds, including saponins, steroids, cardiac glycosides, alkaloids and flavonoids were isolated from Rutaceae species [7]. The antimicrobial activities of their extracts from different solvents have been reported in previous studies [8,9,10]
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