Antimicrobial potential of different crude extracts of zanthoxylum nitidum (roxb.) and Drymaria cordata against selected human pathogens

Abstract

Background: Plants have been a source of medicine to treat various infectious diseases in tribal communities in North East India since time immemorial. Objective: To evaluate antimicrobial activity of Zanthoxylum nitidum (Roxb.) and Drymaria cordata leaves against five human pathogenic bacteria. Method: Ethanolic and Methanolic extracts of the two plants were screened for potential antibacterial activity against 5 bacterial species, namely Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli, Listeria mono cytogeneses, Shigella and Serratia using disc diffusion method. Antibacterial activity of the extracts was performed by agar disc diffusion method. Each experiment was repeated in triplicate sets and the mean values for the inhibition zones from the triplicate results were employed to represent the antibacterial activity of the extracts. Result: The ethanolic and methanolic extracts of Zanthoxylum nitidum (Roxb.) and Drymaria cordata showed a broad spectrum of significant antibacterial activity by producing a clear zone of inhibition against all the selected bacterial strains. The clear zones of inhibition in bacterial samples produced by Zanthoxylum nitidum (Roxb.) and Drymaria cordata extracts were comparable with the antibiotics. Conclusion: Zanthoxylum nitidum (Roxb.) and Drymaria cordata extracts have demonstrated antibacterial effects particularly on salmonella and Serratia as compared to commercially available antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin and chloramphenicol. Thus, Zanthoxylum nitidum (Roxb.) and Drymaria cordata could be effective for prevention of bacterial infections and may be considered as an alternative to antibiotic regimens.