Plants are the richest source of natural antimicrobial agents. The aqueous extracts of Euphorbia thymifolia (whole plant) and Manilkara hexandra (leaves) were subjected to antimicrobial activity study. The present work was mainly focused on screening the antimicrobial activity of aqueous extracts against six bacterial strains including Streptococcus mutans, Bacillus subtilis, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, Salmonella bongori and Enterococcus faecalis and two fungal strains Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger by well diffusion method by measuring the zone of inhibition. The results indicated that the tested microbes were sensitive to the aqueous extracts. The experiment showed that aqueous extracts of Euphorbia thymifolia (whole plant) and Manilkara hexandra (leaves) exhibited excellent antimicrobial activity against tested bacterial organisms as compared to the standards. The results demonstrated that aqueous extracts of these plant materials have concentration dependent antimicrobial activity against some of the tested organisms. The growth of most of the tested microbes was inhibited though to varying degree thus justifying the use of these plants in traditional medicine in treating enteric infections. Among the plants studied, aqueous extract of Manilkara hexandra (leaves) was found to possess greater activity than Euphorbia thymifolia (whole plant).
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2022: 6.012
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