Inhibitory activity of Alpinia galanga (Kulanjan) against pathogenic bacteria

Abstract

Infectious disease are the world’s leading cause of premature deaths, killing almost 50 000 people every day. With the continuous use of antibiotics microbes have become resistant. This has created immense clinical problems in the treatment of infectious diseases. Therefore, there is a need to develop alternative antimicrobial drugs for the treatment of infectious diseases. Plant materials remain an important recourse to combat serious diseases in the world. They are used directly as therapeutic agents, as well as starting materials for the synthesis of drugs or as models for pharmacologically active compounds.The search for potent antibacterial agents has now been shifted to plants. One approach is to screen local medicinal plants for possible antimicrobial properties. According to WHO (1993), 80% of the world’s population is dependent on the traditional medicine and a major part of the traditional therapies involves the use of plant extracts or their active constituents. Yet a scientific study of plants to determine their antimicrobial active compounds is a comparatively new field. There are many published reports on the effectiveness of traditional herbs against pathogenic bacteria, viruses and fungi and as a result plants are still recognized as the bedrock for modern medicine to treat infectious diseases. Keeping in view of the importance of herbs traditionally used for the treatment of infectious diseases, this study is designed to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of Alpinia galanga used in the Indian system of medicine for the treatment various diseases. Results showed broad spectrum antimicrobial activity of Methanolic extract of Alpinia galanga roots.