Abstract:
Antimicrobial activity of five solvent extracts of local plants was evaluated
in vitro, with four strains of bacteria viz.,
Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli, Shigella flexneri (gram -ve),
Staphylococcus aureus (gram +ve) and four strains of fungi viz.,
Alternaria alternata, Penicillium notatum, Aspergillus niger, Penicillium digitatum microorganism. The
in vitro antibacterial and antifungal activities were tested by agar disc diffusion method. The most active antibacterial plants were
Vitex negundo,
Tagetes erecta and antifungal plants were
Xanthium strumarium, Vitex negundo and
Tagetes erecta, respectively. The significant antimicrobial activities of potent extracts were compared with the standard antimicrobiotics, Ciprofloxacin and Fluconazole for bacteria as well as fungi respectively at 1 mg/ml concentration. Preliminary phytochemical analysis of
V. negundo leaf,
X. strumarium, M. pruriens, C. bonduc seed and
T. erecta flower extracts generally revealed the presence of Alkaloids, Steroids, Terpenoids, Phenols, Saponins, Anthraquinones, Amino acids, Carotenoids, Flavonoids and Tannins at various concentrations. The results obtained in this study suggest that
X. strumarium, V. negundo, T. erecta can be used in treating diseases caused by these test organisms.