ANTI-MICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF Ixora alba, Plumeria obtusa AND Psidium guajava

M.B. TALPADE¹, D.P. CHACHAD²*, A. SINGH³, A.M. BHAGWAT^4
1Department of Zoology, Mithibai College, Vile-Parle, Mumbai - 400 056, MS, India.
²Department of Botany, Jai Hind College, Churchgate, Mumbai - 400 020, MS, India.
³Department of Zoology, Mithibai College, Vile-Parle, Mumbai - 400 056, MS, India.
⁴167, D/1, Poona wadi, Dr. Ambedkar Road, Dadar, Mumbai - 400 014, MS, India.
* Corresponding Author : devangichachad@gmail.com

Received : 03-08-2015     Accepted : 15-09-2015     Published : 17-09-2015
Volume : 7     Issue : 3       Pages : 656 - 663
Int J Microbiol Res 7.3 (2015):656-663

Keywords : Antimicrobial activity, Apocynaceae, Rubiaceae, Myrtaceae, herbal antibiotic
Academic Editor : Swaroopa Rani N Gupta, Shingadia Hitesh, Shingadia Hitesh, Dr. Shiva C. Aithal, Dr N. M. Labhane, Pratik M. Bezalwarm, Dr Asha Abraham, Dr. Seweta Srivastava, S. U. Ponnamma
Conflict of Interest : None declared

Studies on the antimicrobial activities of medicinal plants have clearly become a progressive trend. With advances in laboratory techniques, renewed interest in the field and the scientific validation of the traditional use, the possibility now exists to bring traditional medicine to such a level of recognition that it becomes an accepted alternate regimen to western healthcare systems. Due to the indiscriminate use of antimicrobial drugs, the microorganisms have developed resistance to many antibiotics. It appears that the real need for the future will be agents to treat the drug-resistant Gram-negative pathogens. Therefore there is a need to develop alternative antimicrobial drugs for the treatment of infectious diseases. One of the approaches is to screen local medicinal plants for possible antimicrobial properties. It is expected that plant extracts showing target sites other than those used by antibiotics will be active against drug-resistant microbial pathogens. However, very little information is available on such activity of medicinal plants. After a detailed literature survey of Ayurvedic texts and published research articles, for present study, 3 Indian medicinal plants belonging to the families Apocynaceae (Plumeria obtusa), Rubiaceae (Ixora alba) and Myrtaceae (Psidium guajava ) were shortlisted for the present study. These were screened for their antimicrobial properties against pathogens including Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella paratyphi, Escherichia coli, Shigella dysenteriae, Vibrio cholerae, Haemophilus parahaemolyticus, Proteus mirabilis, Proteus vulgaris, Cryptococcus neoformans and Candida albicans.