Article · Volume 2, Issue 4 · pp. 254–257
Antimicrobial screening of ethnobotanically important stem bark of medicinal plants
Meenakshi Singh1, Sayyada Khatoon2, Shweta Singh2, Vivek Kumar4, Ajay Kumar Singh Rawat2, Shanta Mehrotra3
- 1aMimansha Herbals, 25, Basant Vihar, Indira Nagar, Lucknow
- 2Pharmacognosy & Ethnopharmacology Division and
- 3Ex Head & Emeritus Scientist, National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow
- 4National Innovation Foundation, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
Abstract
Background The stem barks are the rich sources of tannins and other phenolic compounds. Tannins inhibited the growth of various fungi, yeast, bacteria and virus. Hence, ten stem barks of ethnomedicinally important plants were screened for antibacterial and antifungal activities against human pathogenic strains. Methods Air-dried and powdered stem bark of each plant was extracted with 50% aqueous ethanol, lyophilized and the dried crude extracts were used for the screening against 11 bacteria and 8 fungi. Antibacterial and antifungal activities were performed according to microdilution methods by NCCLS. Results The plants Prosopis chilensis, Pithecellobium dulce, Mangifera indica showed significant antibacterial and antifungal activities against Streptococcus pneumonia, Enterobacter aerogenes, Klebsiella pneumonia and Candida albicans with MIC of 0.08mg/ml. Pithecellobium dulce bark also showed significant antibacterial activity against Bacillus cereus. Conclusion The bark of Pithecellobium dulce has more or less similar activity against the known antibiotic and may be considered as potent antimicrobial agent for various infectious diseases.
Keywords: Antibacterial; antifungal; bark; ethnobotany; MIC
The full text of this article is available as a PDF. Open the PDF.