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Abstract

Six medicinal plants were tested, namely Portulaca oleraceae, Cucumis sativus, Malus baccata, Geranium wallichianum, Monotheca Buxifolia, and Saxifraga flagillaris for antimicrobial activity against five medically important pathogenic bacterial strains, namely Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Shigella flexneri, and Salmonella typhi. The antimicrobial activities of crude ethanolic extracts and fractions were resolved by using agar well diffusion technique. Our results demonstrated that all the extracts have antimicrobial properties against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. The fractions of extracts indicated higher activities contrary to bacterial strains tested with the highest activity observed for n-hexane and followed by dimethyl chloromethane fractions. Among the tested pathogenic bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus was the most vulnerable, while Pseudomonas aeruginosa was less susceptible. In conclusion, ethanolic fractions of Saxifraga flagillaris indicated the highest effectiveness against all the bacterial pathogens tested. Hence, this study ratifies the efficiency of certain extracts to be subjected for natural antimicrobials and further pharmaceutical assessment. 
Keywords: Antimicrobial activity; Bacteria; Ethanolic extract; Medicinal plants; Pathogens
http://dx.doi.org/10.19045/bspab.2018.700108