Antibacterial and phytochemical studies on twelve species of Indian medicinal plants

Abstract

The aqueous and methanol extracts of 12 plants each belonging to differentfamilies were evaluated for antibacterial activity against medicallyimportant bacteria viz. B. cereus ATCC11778 , S. epidermidids ATCC12228, E. aerogenes ATCC13048, P. vulgaris NCTC 8313, S. typhimurium ATCC23564. The in vitro antibacterial activity was performed by agar discdiffusion and agar well diffusion method. The aqueous extracts wereinactive but methanol extracts showed some degree of antibacterial activityagainst the tested bacterial strains. S. typhimurium was the most resistantbacteria while B. cereus was the most susceptible bacteria. Amongst theplant species screened, methanol extract of Bauhinia variegata barkshowed best antibacterial activity.(Afr. J. Biomed. Res. 10: 175 – 181)