Back to Contents

FREE FULL TEXT PDF

ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY IN HERBAL PRODUCTS USED IN PAKISTAN

CYNTHIa wALTER¹, Zabta K. Shinwari², Imran Afzal² AND rIFFAT n. mALIK¹

Abstract: Antibacterial activity was examined in three herbal products and from ten selected medicinal plants: Ziziphus vulgaris, Malva sylvestris, Onosma bracteatum, Hyssopus officinalis, Ephedra gerardiana, Cordia latifolia, Althaea officinalis, Mentha piperita, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Justica adhatoda. Antibacterial activity was determined by the agar well diffusion method; crude extracts were obtained by using methanol as the extraction solvent. Five concentrations (15 mg/ml, 12.5 mg/ml, 10 mg/ml, 7.5 mg/ml and 5 mg/ml) were used to check the antibacterial activity of plant extracts. Each plant sample was tested against one Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and two Gram-negative (Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) bacteria. Most of the plant extracts showed antibacterial activity against the Gram-positive bacterium. The order of antibacterial activity was S. aureus>P. aeurginosa>E. coli. Maximum zones of inhibition were seen in Hyssopus officinalis (3.37 ± 0.05 mm) against S. aureus, Glycyrrhiza glabra (3.6 ± 0.3 mm) against E. coli and Justica adhatoda (2.67 ± 0.06 mm) against P. aeruginosa. Herbal product 1 showed antibacterial activity against P. aeruginosa (2.93 ± 0.15 mm), S. aureus (2.2 ± 0.1 mm) and E. coli (1.33 ± 0.21 mm). Herbal product 2 showed antibacterial activity against S. aureus (2.93 ± 0.15 mm), P. aeruginosa (2.1 ± 0.1 mm) and E. coli (1.33 ± 0.11 mm). Herbal product 3 was also effective against S. aureus (2.6 ± 0.1 mm), P. aeruginosa (2.33 ± 0.51 mm) and E. coli (1.33 ± 0.15 mm). All three herbal products show significant antibacterial activity.

¹Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

²Department of Biotechnology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

*Corresponding author’s email: shinwari@qau.edu.pk