Projects

Antimicrobial Activity of Different Plant Parts and Their Combinatorial Effects with Antibiotics

In recent times, the search for potent antibacterial agents has been shifted to plants. Most plants are medicinally useful in treating disease in the body and in most cases, the antimicrobial efficacy value attributed to some plants is beyond belief. Conservative estimates suggest that about 10% of all flowering plants on earth have at one time, been used by local communities throughout the world but only 1% have gained recognition by modern scientists. This study was aimed at assessing the credibility of indigenous methods of treatment for common infections using natural products.Staphylococcus aureus was chosen as the organism of interest due to the increased frequency of infections caused by it. As the first step towards this aim, antimicrobial activities of methanolic and aqueous extracts of Azadirachta indica, Caesalpinia sapans, Eupatorium rugosum, Syzygium aromaticum, Cinnamomum zeylanicum, Phyllanthus emblica were chosen Growth inhibition was evaluated using well diffusion assay.A comparitive study of different plant parts like stem,root and leaves was done.Out of the plants we had chosen, methanolic extracts of gooseberry stem,clove leaf,cinnamon leaf,sappanwood leaf and gooseberry leaf showed significant activity Minimum inhibitory concentrations of these plant extracts were analysed and it was noted that methanolic extraction of Syzygium aromaticum leaf with MIC of .32mg/2μl had a notable contribution in imparting the antimicrobial activity.It was found that the combination of Cinnamomum zeylanicum root with the antibiotic ciprofloxacin had significant enhancement compared to when either were used as a single agent.