Investigation of antibacterial activity of three traditional medicine formulations

ABSTRACT

Three Traditional Medicine Formulations which are widely used by local people were investigated for antibacterial activity using 14 species of bacteria. The bacteria include one specie each of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Streptococcus pyogenes and Vibrio cholerae; two species each of Proteus, Salmonella and Staphylococcus and 4 species of Shigellae. The formulations were Ah-bein-nyin, Heleikdasonna and Nandwin-nganzay which contain herbs and chemicals and have been used as antipyretic or in the treatment of urinary disorders, gastrointestinal disorders and cardiovascular disorders. Fifty per cent alcoholic extract of these drugs were found to possess some antibacterial activity on certain bacteria. Moreover, extracts from 7 plants namely, Saxifraga ligulata (Wall) (Nat-hsay-gamone), Capparis sepiaria (Sugaut-net), Holoptelea integrifolia (Pyauk-seik), Zizyphus oenoplia (Baung-bet), Hygrophila spinosa (Su-padaung), Mitrahyna perviflora (Htain-they) and unidentified sp. (Thetyin-kadoe) were also tested on the above bacteria. It was observed that Saxifraga ligulata, Capparis sepiaria and Zizyphus oenoplia showed antibacterial activity on some bacteria.