ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF TERMINALIA CATAPPA LEAVES

Terminalia catappa Linn. belongs to the family Combretraceae found in tropical regions of Asia, Africa and Australia, which is commonly called as Indian almond, sea-almond, tropical almond, wild badam. The fruit is useful in bronchitis and bowels. Juice of leaves is used in the preparation of the ointment for scabies, leprosy, cutaneous diseases and also as analgesic. The root bark is used in dysentery and diarrhoea. The stem bark cures fevers. The oil yielded from kernels is used commercially as a substituted for almond oil. According to the literature the different parts of the plants is used in many therapies including, antibacterial anticlastogenic, antioxidant, antifungal, antiulcer and molluscidal activity, management of sickle cell aneamia, anticancer, anti HIV reverse transcriptase, hepato- protective, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic. In this study the methanol extracts of two varieties of Terminalia catappa (yellow and red variety) leaf was screened for antifungal like Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger and antibacterial like Eschiershea coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Citrobacter species, Enterococcus faecalis, Pseudomonas aerogenosa  and Bacillus  cereus  was evaluated. The variation in the intensity of inhibitory activity of this microorganism between two varieties was observed.