Screening of eight plant extracts for their antimicrobial properties.
Abha Verma, Prakash Joshi, Arvind Arya
Author Affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Meerut Institute of Engineering and Technology, Meerut, UP, India.
International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences 2 : 315-320
Abstract : Eight plants were screened for their potential antimicrobial activity. The plants screened were Azadirachta indica (Meliaceae), Emblica officinalis (Phyllanthaceae), Terminalia arjuna (Combretaceae), Calendula officinalis (Asteraceae), Ficus benghalensis (Moraceae), Vinca rosea (Apocynaceae), Mangifera indica (Anacardiaceae) and Mentha piperita (Lamiaceae). The activity was tested using agar well diffusion method against 13 microbes that includes six bacterial strains and seven fungal strains. Among the three solvents used the extractive yield was maximum with methanol. Proteus vulgaris, among bacteria was observed to be the most resistant one, slightly inhibited by n-hexane extract of Calendula officinalis (leaf), methanolic extract of Emblica officinalis (leaf) and methanolic extracts of Calendula officinalis. Antifungal activity was found to be less in case of all the extracts except in case of methanolic extracts of Emblica officinalis (fruit) and n-hexane extract of Azadirachta indica which considerably inhibited Aspergillus fumigatus and Cladosporium herbarum respectively.