Green Global
Foundation   Journal
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ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF CHLOROFORMIC EXTRACTS OF Xylocarpus mekongenesis (Lamk.) M. Roem. and Cerbera manghas (Pages : 13 - 18)

Xylocarpus mekongenesis (Family: Meliaceae) and Cerbera manghas (Family: Apocynaceae) are two widely distributed woody plants of the Sundarbans mangrove forest. In the present study, efforts were undertaken to determine the antimicrobial effect of chloroformic stem and leaf extracts of X. mekongenesis and C. manghas using disc diffusion method. A number of both gram positive and gram negative bacteria were cultured on Petri dishes (120 mm in diameter) containing nutrient agar media for this antimicrobial screening. Tested extracts in different concentration diffused from the discs to the surrounding medium of the plate. The plates were maintained at 37°C for 18 hours for optimum growth of the microorganisms. The antibacterial activity of the extracts was determined by measuring the diameter of the zone of inhibition in terms of millimetre. Antimicrobial screening showed that the crude chloroformic stem and leaf extracts of X. mekongenesis and C. manghas possessed antimicrobial activity against most of the test organisms depending upon the nature of their active ingredients in the extract and capacity of diffusion into the agar medium. Among the test organisms, the extract showed moderate activity against Escherichia coli, Shigella flexneri, Shigella dysenteriae, Vibrio cholerae, Salmonella typhi, Salmonella paratyphi, Pseudomonas spp, Proteus spp, Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermis. The experimental findings provide a support for their uses in ethnomedicine and show rationale for further investigation.Download