Antibacterial Effect of Pongamia pinnata Leaf Extract against Some Human Pathogenic Bacteria

Abstract

Medicinal plants play an important role in the discovery of novel drugs used in modern medicine. The medicinal plant Pongamia pinnata leaf possesses the wide range of medicinal properties which were confirmed through literature reviews. The leaves of the Pongamia pinnata have been used for the medicinal purposes since ancient time research has suggested that Pongamia pinnata leaf extracts have antimicrobial properties. The present study was to determine its leaves have any antibacterial activity leaf aqueous extract were screened for against different species of human pathogens, Chromobacterim violaceum, Citrobacter frendii, Staphylococcus aureus and Micrococcus luteus. The activity of leaf aqueous extracts was measured by agar well diffusion method. Nutrient Agar Media (NAM) was prepared for growth of bacteria strains; leaf aqueous extract was obtained by mixing the pulverized leaf materials with ethanol, filtered with Whatman No. 1 filter paper and concentrated to dryness. The collected extracts were tested for antibacterial activities, after that plates placed in incubator for incubation at 37 ± 2°C for 24 hours. Measure the zones of inhibition obtained. The obtained data were statistically analyzed by using standard deviation and standard error. The highest zone of inhibition of P. pinnata ethanolic leaf aqeous extract was measured against gram-positive bacteria Micrococcus luteus (38 mm) and smallest was measured against Citrobacter freundii (17.6 mm). In this present study we have evaluated the efficacy of P. pinnata leaf extract against four different human pathogenic bacteria.