Antimicrobial Activity of Some Medicinal Plants from Malaysia

Problem statement: About 32 extracts from eight selected medicinal plants, namely Pereskia bleo, Pereskia grandifolia, Curcuma aeruginosa Roxb., Curcuma zedoria, Curcuma mangga, Curcuma inodora aff. Blatter, Zingiber officinale var. officinale (jahe gajah) and Zingiber officinale var. rubrum (jahe emprit) used by Malaysia traditional health care systems were screened for their antimicrobial activity against both Gram-positive bacteria and Gram-negative bacteria using agar disc diffusion assay. Approach: The efficacy of the extracts was compared to the commercially prepared antibiotic diffusion discs. Results: No inhibition was observed with the water fractions. Conclusion/Recommendations: None of the plants tested showed inhibition against Escherichia coli. Curcuma mangga showed some remarked inhibition against the bacteria used in this study.