STUDY ON EXTRACTS OF PARMELIA PERLATA ACH. FOR ITS ANTIMICROBIAL POTENTIAL AGAINST CERTAIN MICROORGANISMS

Abstract

A significant increase in the trend of infectious diseases and alarming shoot up of resistance to existing antimicrobial agents demands a renewed effort to seek agents effective against pathogenic bacteria resistant to current antimicrobials. Different extracts of Parmelia perlata (Chhadela), were studied for their screening of antibacterial activity against various bacterial strains by Agar well diffusion method on inoculated Media plates. It was found that P. perlata has a significant activity towards Bacillus cereus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Proteus vulgaris, Staphylococcus aureus, Corynebacterium xerosis, Escherichia coli and Klebseilla pneuomoniae while no activity towards S. epidermidis, S. mutans and S. pyrogenes. Moreover it was seen that 50 % hydro-ethanolic extracts produced more significant ZOI than 90 % ethanolic extract in all tested strains. The antibacterial activity so found, can be due to the presence of chemical constituents as Usnic acid which can halt infection and is effective against various gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria species. It can be concluded that due to their antimicrobial effects, extracts of the lichen can be used for the infectious diseases caused by these microbes. This study provides an in-vitro proof of the antibacterial activity of Parmelia perlata.