Abstract

ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF PHYLLANTHUS ACIDUS AND A. BILIMBI

Jagessar R. C.* and S. Mahadeo

ABSTRACT

Antimicrobial resistance is a widespread problem globally and there is a need to use alternative complementary medicines in natural antimicrobials. This study focuses on the use of herbs in Guyana as an alternative medicine to the synthetic analogues. To this end, the antimicrobial activity of Averrhoa bilimbi and Phyllantus acidus were investigated, at three different concentrations of 100%, 90% and 80%, using the Disc Diffusion assay against five (5) pathogenic microorganisms; Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida albicans. For P. acidus extract, the highest AZOI of 82.5mm2 was achieved by the ethanolic and aqueous extract at 90% and 100% against C. albicans. For the A.bilimbi extract, the highest AZOI of 60.1 mm2 was induced by the ethanolic extract against P. aeruginosa at 100% concentration. Statistically, there wasn’t no significant differences in the AZOI induced by the ethanolic (P = 0.84) and aqueous extract of Averrrhoa bilimbi (P = 0.620), indicating that both solvent type extracts are capable of achieving the same degree of potency against the selected pathogens.

Keywords: Antimicrobial resistance, Ethanolic and Aqueous extract, Pathogenic microorganisms, A. bilimbi, P.acidus.