Abstract
Objective: The present study was undertaken to evaluate in-vitro antimicrobial activity of methanol, acetone and N, N-dimethylformamide extracts from leaf of Terminalia catappa L. (Combretaceae). Methods: In vitro antimicrobial activity of all the extracts was done by agar disc diffusion assay. 91 clinically important strains were used for the study, which were both clinical isolates as well as identified strains. Piperacillin and gentamicin were used as standards for antibacterial assay, while nystatin and flucanazole were used as standards for antifungal assay. Antimicrobial activity was determined by measurement of inhibition zone around each paper disc. For each extract three replicate trials were conducted against each organism. Results: The antibacterial activity was more pronounced against bacteria than fungal strains. The Gram positive bacteria were more susceptible than Gram negative bacteria. The methanol extract showed best antibacterial activity. T. catappa leaf extracts showed better antibacterial activity than commercially used antibiotics. Conclusion: Demonstration of antimicrobial activity of T. catappa provides the scientific basis for the use of this plant in the traditional treatment of diseases and may help to discover new chemical classes of antibiotic substances that could serve as selective agents for infectious disease chemotherapy and control. This investigation has opened up the possibility of the use of this plant in drug development for human consumption possibly for the treatment of various infections caused by microbes.
Highlights
Traditional medicine has been practiced for many centuries in many parts of the world, including India especially in rural areas due to availability and low cost
In recent years multiple drug resistance in human pathogenic microorganisms have developed due to the indiscriminate use of commercial antimicrobial drugs commonly used in the treatment of infectious diseases [24]
In addition to this problem, antibiotics are sometimes associated with adverse effects on host including hypersensitivity, immunosuppression and allergic reactions [25]
Summary
Traditional medicine has been practiced for many centuries in many parts of the world, including India especially in rural areas due to availability and low cost. Nature has provided a source of medicinal agents for thousands of years and an impressive number of modern drugs have been isolated from natural sources, many based on their use in traditional medicine [1]. There has been an increasing incidence of multiple resistances in human pathogenic microorganisms, largely due to the indiscriminate use of commercial antimicrobial drugs commonly employed in the treatment of infectious diseases [2]. The development of bacterial resistance to presently available antibiotics has necessitated the search for new antibacterial agents. Numerous studies have been conducted with the extracts of various plants, screening antimicrobial activity as well as for the discovery of new antimicrobial compounds [3,4,5,6]. The efforts of scientists in establishing plants with promising antimicrobial property is yielding fruitful results as a number of plants with high antimicrobial property have been elucidated [7,8,9,10,11,12,13]
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