Antibacterial activity of 6 Indian medicinal plants against bacterial pathogens isolated from various skin ailments.
Gupta P. D., Ravishanker Babu, Deshmukh P. V.
Author Affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Smt.Chandibai Himathmal Mansukhani College, Ulhasnagar 421 003, Maharashtra, India.
Asian Journal of Experimental Biological Sciences 4 : 336-344
Abstract : Cold and hot alcoholic extracts (CAE & HAE) of 6 medicinal plants were tested individually as well as in combination against bacterial pathogens isolated from various types of skin ailments including acne, cellulitis, folliculitis, furuncles, carbuncles, boils, impetigo etc. The most implicated organism involved in skin ailments was Staphylococcus aureus followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Corynebacterium species. Some of these isolates were found to be resistant to various antibiotics like tetracycline, erythromycin, penicillin, Clindamycin and ciprofloxacin, commonly prescribed for bacterial skin infections. The CAE of Mango leaves was found to be the most effective extract individually. The combination of plants in CAE form was more effective as compared to the individual plants as well as HAE of the combination of plants. The CAE of combination of plants was found to exhibit remarkable antibacterial activity with MIC as low as 7.5 mg/ml where it was able to inhibit all the isolates including the resistant ones. Though effective, the HAE of combination of plants was able to inhibit the resistant isolates only at a concentration of 10 mg/ml. The Herbal gel formulated using CAE of the combination of plants was found to be very effective and displayed no toxicity during animal experiments.