PRELIMINARY SCREENING OF ETHNOMEDICINAL PLANTS FOR ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY

Based on the ethno botanical survey and the related literature, 285 solvent extracts from 57 ethno medicinal plants belonging to 55 genera and 34 families were subjected to preliminary screening for antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis using agar well diffusion method at concentrations of 5 & 2.5 mg/ml. Among 285 plant extracts, some exhibited very effective activity, some exhibited effective activity, some exhibited moderate and some exhibited weak activity and no activity was observed in some extracts against E. coli and B. subtilis. Among the plants tested, maximum activity was observed in all the solvents extracts of Argemone mexicana, Allium sativum, Lantana camara, Tephrosia purpurea and Withania somnifera. The results of the present study indicate that the extracts of different parts of 57 ethnomedicinal plants have more potential of antibacterial activity and are concentration dependent. The demonstration of broad spectrum of the above said 5 plants may help to discover new chemical classes of antibiotic substances that could serve as selective agents for infectious disease chemotherapy and control.