Abstract:
In the recent years, research on medicinal plants has attracted a lot of attentions globally. Large body of evidence
has accumulated to demonstrate the promising potential of medicinal plants used in various traditional, complementary and alternate systems of treatment of human diseases. The aim of this study is to determine the antimicrobial activities of selected traditionally used medicinal plants such as Ruta chalepensis, Lantana camara and Azadirachta indica against standard reference bacterial and fungal species. The antimicrobial activity of leaves and
seed of these plants were evaluated using Soxhelt extraction method. Methanol, Petroleum ether, Chloroform, Acetone and Ethanol were used as solvents in order to prepare the plant extracts. The antimicrobial activity was
screened by using disc diffusion technique against pathogenic bacteria species of Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas
aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumonia and Salmonella typhi and fungal species Fusarium
oxysporum. The diameter of inhibition zone was measured in millimeters from the centre of the disc. The leaf extract were effective when compare to the seed extract. S. aureus was found to be the most resistant for all the plant
extracts and solvents. Methanol and Ethanol extracts of R. chalepensis and Aceton extract of L. camara showed
antibacterial and antifungal activity against disease causing organisms and this suggest that constituents of the
plants could be useful in chemotherapy.
