ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF A FEW MEDICINAL PLANTS AGAINST GRAM NEGATIVE BACTERIA

The methanol and aqueous extracts of leaves of five different medicinal plants, Solanum nigrum L., Solanum torvum Sw., Solanum trilobatum L., Solanum surattense Burm. and Solanum melongena L. belonging to Solanaceae family were used for the investigation of antibacterial studies. In antibacterial screening performed by disc diffusion method against two gram negative bacteria namely Xanthomonas campestris (plant pathogen) and Aeromonas hydrophila (animal pathogen), it was found that the methanol extracts of all the plant samples showed significant activity against the two tested bacteria. The methanol extracts of S. nigrum, S. torvum and S. surattense exhibited clear zone of inhibition against the tested micro organisms. Among these three samples, the MIC value of S. surattense, determined by serial dilution technique, was found to be 32µg/ml and 64µg/ml against Xanthomonas campestris and Aeromonas hydrophila respectively.