Antimicrobial activity analysis of Piper betle Linn leaves extract from Nganjuk, Sidoarjo and Batu against Escherichia coli, Salmonella sp., Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Abstract

The outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in Indonesia since early March 2020 has caused many casualties. To prevent this, everyone must wear a mask, wash their hands and maintain social distancing. Hand washing can be done with a hand sanitizer that contains up to 70% alcohol so that it has the potential to kill bacteria and the COVID-19 virus. However, alcohol has some disadvantages such as being flammable, leading to dry skin and removing the protective film of skin. For this reason, the formulation of an alcohol-free antiseptic liquid such as green leaves of Piper betle Linn can be an alternative solution because it contains various substances that are useful for human health, including essential oils, carvacrol and tannins which function as antiseptics, antiviral and antimicrobial. This study reports the antimicrobial activity of Piper betle Linn leaves extract from three districts: Nganjuk, Sidoarjo and Batu with a concentration of 50% to inhibit the growth of Escherichia coli, Salmonella sp., Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The aim was to compare the ability of the three extracts in inhibiting the growth of each bacterium. The extracts were prepared by maceration method using 96% ethanol. The evaluation was performed by agar diffusion method based on the Indonesian Pharmacopeia IV. Streptomycin 100 ppm, 50 μL was used as the positive control. It was investigated that the growth inhibitory responses of the three extracts to the four bacteria are comparable to the response of Streptomycin and are classified as moderate.