ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF FICUS RACEMOSA L. AND CISSAMPELOS PAREIRA L. VAR. HIRSUTA (DC) FORMAN., AGAINST E. COLI, P. AEROGINOSA, S. AUREUS AND B. SUBTILIS

Abstract

The present work was designed to assess the antimicrobial activity of the methanolic extracts of the bark of Ficus racemosa L. and root of Cisampelos pareira

1. var. hirsuta (DC) Forman. The antimicrobial activity of the extracts was assessed by disc diffusion method using four microbial strains. Many plants of the family Moraceae are used in the treatment of infectious diseases. Ficus racemosa, belongs to this family, is used traditionally against dyspepsia, dermal infections, abdominal pains and diarrhoea. Similarly, Cissampelos pareira, a plant belongs to family Minispermaceae found to have analgesic, anti- inflammatory and febrifuge properties. In the present study, both the plant extracts exhibited the antimicrobial effect against four strains of Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeroginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis. The effects were compared with that of the standard antibiotic loaded discs, Ofloxacin 5 $ \mu $g/disc. Finally, the petridishes were incubated at 37⁰C for 24 hours. After the incubation period the zone of inhibition produced by samples and standard were measured. Comparatively, the activity of Cissampelos pareira was found better than that of Ficus racemosa. But, in case of P. aeuroginosa, it showed less activity than Ficus racemosa. Cissampelos pareira showed better activity against B. subtilis which is comparable with that of the standard drug Ofloxacin. It was clearly observed that methanolic extracts of both the herbals exhibit impact antimicrobial activity against B. subtilis.