Antibacterial and Antifungal Activities of Several Extracts of Centella asiatica L. against Some Human Pathogenic Microbes

An experiment was carried out to study the antimicrobial activity of petroleum ether, ethanol, chloroform, n- hexane and water extracts of Centella asiatica herb by agar well diffusion assay. The tested bacterial strains were Proteus vulgaris, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli and fungal strains were Aspergillus niger and Candida albicans. Zone of inhibition produced by different extracts against the selected strains was measured and compared with standard antibiotic ciprofloxacin (10µg) and ketocanozole (10µg). The present study demonstrated that the petroleum ether, ethanol and chloroform extracts of Centella asiatica have higher antimicrobial activities (average 12-19 mm zone of inhibition) than n-hexane and water extracts (average 8-14 mm zone of inhibition) whereas n-hexane extract showed no activity against E. coli. All the extracts showed better results against the tested fungal strains comparing with ketocanozole (10µg). The results obtained in the present study suggest that the different extracts of Centella asiatica revealed a significant scope to develop a novel broad spectrum of antibacterial and antifungal herbal formulations.