Antimicrobial activity of Tephrosia purpurea (Linn.) Pers. and Mimusops elengi (Linn.) against some clinical bacterial isolates

C.L. Abayasekara, B.N.L.D. Rangama, G.J. Panagoda, M.R.D.M. Senanayake
2009 Journal of the National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka  
Antimicrobial activity of Tephrosia purpurea (Linn.) Pers. and Mimusops elengi (Linn.) against some clinical bacterial isolates Abstract: Plants used in traditional medicinal systems have proved to be reliable sources of antibmicrobial compounds. Two native plants, Tephrosia purpurea (Linn.) Pers. (Fabaceae) and Mimusops elengi (Linn.) (Sapotaceae) were screened for their antimicrobial activity. Preliminary testing of antimicrobial activity of T. purpurea against 3 standard cultures
more » ... cus aureus [NCTC 6571], Pseudomonas aeruginosa [NCTC 10662], E. coli [NCTC 10418] and one clinical isolate of Candida spp. was performed with water extracts of leaves, pods and roots using the 'disc diffusion bioassay'. Subsequently, the antimicrobial activity of ethanolic root and leaf extracts against the above three standard isolates and clinical isolates of two strains of Staphylococcus, two strains of Pseudomonas and nine coliforms were tested using the 'well method'. The active extracts were subjected to the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) agar dilution method, to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration of each extract. Further, the effect of plant maturity was tested on the antimicrobial activity of T. purpurea. In addition, ethonolic extracts were prepared from the bark of M. elengi and tested for its antimicrobial activity against the above bacterial isolates. Ethanolic root extracts of T. purpurea were found to be active against P. aeruginosa, two other Pseudomonas strains and two coliform strains. Ethanolic leaf extracts and all the water extracts showed no activity against any of the isolates. The bark extract of M. elengi showed activity against three Staphylococcus isolates including S. aureus. The MIC of ethanolic root extracts of T. purpurea and bark extract of M. elengi were both found to be 128mg/L. There were no differences between the antimicrobial activities of the extracts of T. purpurea plants at different maturity levels.
doi:10.4038/jnsfsr.v37i2.1071 fatcat:yohxwu3kszgrxicrnrnro2zfa4