Antibacterial activity of medicinal plants used as ethnomedicine by the traditional healers of Musiri Thaluk, Trichy District, Tamilnadu, India

The objective of this study was to collect information about medicinal plants and their uses by the knowledge obtained from the traditional healers in Musiri thaluk of Trichy district, Tamilnadu, India. It was also to determine the phytochemical properties and antimicrobial activity of fifteen different plants selected based on spearman rank correlation. The traditional healers of Musiri thaluk, Trichy district used different species of medicinal plants belonging to different families for the treatment of various diseases. Common maximum number of species has been used for fever followed by skin infection, wound healing and antiseptic. Herbs were found to be the most used plants followed by climbers, shrubs and trees. The spearman rank correlation was used to analyse the knowledge about medicinal plants. Antibacterial activity of fifteen medicinal plants (Acalypha fruticosa, Caralluma attenuate, Cissampelos pareira, Elephantopus scaber, Mukia maderaspatensis, Justicia simplex, Lepidagathis cristata, Rhinacanthus nasutus, Sida acuta, Theprosia purpurea,Toddalia asiatica, Tridax procumbens, Tylophora indica, Trichodesma indicum andOldenlandia umbellata) was determined by measuring the diameter of zone of inhibition, that is the mean of triplicates + standard deviation (SD) of three replicates.  Of these, T. procumbens and T. indica exhibited more promising bactericidal activity againstStaphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus mirablis andVibrio cholerae. The traditional healers in Trichy district possess rich ethno-botanical knowledge. This study on medicinal plants will attract ethano botanist, phytochemistrist and pharmacologists in identifying many high value medicinal plant species for research of novel antibacterial compound of these medicinal plants.   Key words: Antibacterial, medicinal plants, traditional medicine, local healers .