Evaluation of Antimicrobial Potency and Synergistic Activity of Nine Traditionally Used Indian Medicinal Plants

Recent acceptance of natural herbal medicines as an alternative form of health care and development of microbial resistance has led to investigate the antimicrobial action of medicinal plants. Present investigation is focused on antimicrobial potential of nine commonly used Indian medicinal herbs. The antimicrobial screening of hydroalcoholic extract of all the nine plants was carried out by agar welldiffusion method and broth dilution method. The efficacy of extracts has been evaluated in terms of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) against pathogenic strains of Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 9027) and Candida albicance (ATCC 10231). MIC values of individual extracts ranged between 0.4-0.9 mg/ml. MIC values of the combined crude extracts were recorded as 0.3 mg/ml (C. albicance ) , 0.5 mg/ml (Staph. aureus), and 0.6 mg/ml (P. aeruginosa) . The MIC values obtained in each test organisms were inhibitory as well as cidal values. Susceptibility of test organisms was in decreasing order C. albicance > Staph . aureus > P. aeruginosa. Thus our findings validate the use of these medicinal plants in traditional systems of medicines and their potential role in antimicrobial therapy.