Antimicrobial activity of Salvadora oleoides Decne. against some microorganisms

Abstract

Salvadora oleoides Decne (Salvadoraceae family), an endangered economic plant (Regional vulnerable) commonly known in India as meetha jal is an oil-yielding medicinal and multipurpose tree. The aqueous and organic solvent extracts of different plant parts ofS. oleoides (Salvadoraceae) were screened for antimicrobial activity by the agar well diffusion method and microtitre plate method. Different extracts obtained by Soxhlet extraction method were evaluated for their antimicrobial potential against eight bacterial strains: Bacillus subtilis (MTCC 441), Bacillus cereus (MTCC 430) Staphylococcus aureus(MTCC 96), Staphylococcus epidermidis (MTCC 435), Escherichia coli (MTCC 433),Proteus vulgaris (MTCC 426), Proteus mirabilis (MTCC 425), Klebsiella pneumoniae(MTCC 3384) and three fungal strains: Aspergillus fumigatus (MTCC 343), Candida albicans (MTCC 227) and Aspergillus niger (MTCC 282) by agar well diffusion and micro broth dilution method. Benzene extracts of both root and stem possesses highest antibacterial activity with MIC of 6.25 to 12.5 mg/ml and MIC of 6.25 to 25 mg/ml respectively. The leaf extract was inactive against all the tested pathogenic microbial strains. Antimicrobial activity of the root and stem benzene extracts were highly significant (p<0.05) when compared with standard drug streptomycin (10 µg) by Graph pad prism version 5 (Deunett multiple range test). The results of this study suggest that S. oleoidesroot and stem extracts possess antimicrobial activity against some of the tested microorganisms. Key words: Salvadora oleoides, antimicrobial activity, agar well diffusion method, MIC.