Antibacterial and antifungal activities of crude methanolic and ethanolic extracts of Medicago polymorpha

Author(s): Amin Ullah, Muhammad Imran Khan*, Yaqoob ur rehman, Muhammad Waqas, Muhammad Ajmal Khan, Sher Ali, Gohar Zaman, Hazrat Ali

Abstract

Microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi are not only the major cause of different severe diseases of animals and humans but also the leading cause of reduction in crops yield. Every year crops yield decreases due to fungal and bacterial attacks. Modern chemicals and synthetic pharmaceutical drugs have been failed in achieving their goals because of side effects, microbes resistivity and high prices. Plants have been proved good and reach sources of antimicrobial agents. Present research is a good attempt towards medicinal plants as perfect and safe sources of antifungal and antibacterial natural phytoconstuents. Methanolic and Ethanolic extracts of Medicago Polymorpha was tested against different fungal and bacteria species. The methanolic extract of Medicago polymorpha showed relatively low activity against Aspergillus niger about 30% And relatively high activities against, Aspergillus flavus (55%) and Aspergillus fumigates (45%) (Table I). Ethanolic extract of Medicago polymorpha showed antifungal activities against the three fungal strains in the range Aspergillus flavus (40%), Aspergillus fumigates (39%) and Aspergillus niger (36%) (Table II). Antibiotic Terbinafine and DMSO were used as positive and negative controls respectively. The positive control terbinafine inhibits growth of all fungus strains to an average of 98%. All fungus strains showed full growth on DMSO (Tables I and II). In antibacterial assay the methanolic extract of Medicago Polymorpha showed comparatively high activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa (22mm) and Micrococcus luteus (21.5mm) and low activity against Staphylococcus aureus (16mm) and Escherichia coli (18.5mm) (Table III). The ethanolic extract showed highest antibacterial activities against Escherichia coli (20mm) and Micrococcus luteus (20mm) and comparatively some less activities against Staphylococcus aureus (15mm) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (19mm) (Table IV). The results are in comparison with the standards cefixime-USP and roxithromycin (positive controls) (Table III& IV).

Share this article

International Journal of Bioassays is a member of the Publishers International Linking Association, Inc. (PILA), CROSSREF and CROSSMARK (USA). Digital Object Identifier (DOI) will be assigned to all its published content.