Pharmacophore an International Research Journal
Objective: To investigate the in vitro antibacterial potential, phytochemical constituents and thin-layer chromatography (TLC) bioautography of Mesua ferrea and Piper cubeba fruit extracts. The antibacterial activities of various solvent extracts prepared were assessed against five multi‑drug resistant clinical isolates from both Gram-negative and positive bacteria isolated from human infection. Materials and Methods: The antibacterial activity of solvent extracts from Mesua ferrea and Piper cubeba was evaluated by agar well diffusion method. The antibacterial activity was evaluated using the TLC-bioautographic method. Preliminary phytochemical analysis was conducted. Results: All the evaluated extracts exibited moderate to significant antibacterial activity against all clinical isolates except Klebsiella sp. and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The maximum zone of inhibition was found to be 22.5 ± 0.90 mm in M. ferrea and17.6 ± 0.80 mm in P. cubeba against Enterococcus sp. The qualitative phytochemical analysis showed the presence of most of the phytochemicals such as flavonoids, steroids, reducing sugars, cardiac glycosides and triterpenoids in all the solvent extract tested. TLC and bioautography agar overlay assay of hexane extracts of M. ferrea indicated flavonoids as the active compounds against multidrug-resistant Enterococcus sp. Conclusions: The solvent extracts of both the plants possessing antibacterial potential against clinical isolates can be utilized in the treatment of microbial infections.
