Common household spices: alternative source of antimicrobial compounds.

ABSTRACT

The antibacterial effect of some selected Indian medicinal plants was evaluated on bacterial strains like Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus licheniformes and Escherichia coli. The solvents used for the extraction of plants were water, ethanol and methanol. The in vitro antibacterial activity was performed by agar well diffusion method. The most susceptible gram-positive bacteria was B. subtilis, The aqueous extracts of lemon was found to be effective against all the strains selected while aqueous extract of all other plant extract could not inhibit any of the bacterial strains investigated significantly. The most active antibacterial plant was Z. officinale Roscoe and Cinnamomum zeylanicum . The methanolic extracts were found to be more effective than etanolic and aqueous ones.