Abstract
Plants have been used as major source of active compounds with medicinal importance since human civilization. These naturally occurring pharmacologically active agents have least or no toxicity to the host. The antibacterial activity of extracts (water, acetone and methanol) from six indigenous Indian plants: Acacia nilotica (Fabaceae), Albizia saman (Fabaceae), Azadirachta indica (Meliaceae), Carica papaya (Caricaceae), Cymbopogon citratus (Poaceae) and Mangifera indica (Anacardiaceae) were determined against the pathogenic bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus: ATCC 25923; Escherichia coli: ATCC 25922 and Klebsiella pneumonia: ATCC 700603). The antimicrobial study was carried out by the gel diffusion method and the results show that as compared to aqueous extract, methanolic and acetone extracts were more effective. Of all the studied plants, the methanolic extract of A. saman leaves inhibited the growth of all the three test organisms. Key words: Antibacterial activity, pathogenic bacteria, indigenous plants.
Highlights
According to World Health Organization, plants are the preferred source of a variety of drugs
The present study aimed to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of the above mentioned common plants against three pathogenic bacteria
The objective was to discover an efficient alternative against the pathogenic bacteria which was free of the disadvantages of antibiotics
Summary
According to World Health Organization, plants are the preferred source of a variety of drugs. There is a huge variety of plants, rich in secondary metabolites [which may be potential sources of drugs] and essential oils of therapeutic importance (Dipankar et al, 2011). Bacteria have the genetic ability to transmit and acquire resistance to various environmental factors viz. The increasing prevalence of multidrug resistant strains of the bacteria and the recent appearance of strains with reduced susceptibility to antibiotics raises the spectre of untreatable bacterial infections and adds urgency to the search for new infection-fighting strategies
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