ANTIBACTERIAL AND ANTIFUNGAL ACTIVITIES OF LEAF EXTRACTS OF BERBERIS ARISTATA AND ABIES WEBBIANA: THE ETHNOMEDICINAL PLANTS

This study was carried out to investigate the antibacterial and antifungal potentials of Abies webbiana and Berberis aristate Linn. The study aims to assess the antimicrobial activity and determine the zone of inhibition of extracts on some bacterial and fungal strains. The extracts determined the antimicrobial activity using the agar disc diffusion method. The antibacterial and antifungal activities of extracts (5, 25, 50, 100, 250 μg/ml, and so on) of A. webbiana and B. aristata were tested against different Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and four fungal strains: Aspergillus niger, Candida albicans, and Penicillium notatum and Penicillium funiculus. The zone of inhibition of extracts was compared with that of a standard like ciprofloxacin for antibacterial activity and griseofulvin for antifungal activity. The results showed that the remarkable inhibition of the bacterial as well as fungal growth was shown against the tested organisms. The phytochemical analyses of the plant extracts indicated the presence of saponins, tannins, alkaloids, flavonoids, triterpenoids, steroids, glycosides, anthraquinones, coumarin, saponins, gum, protein, and amino acids. The antimicrobial activity of AWE and BAE may be due to the presence of such secondary metabolites. Hence, these plants may be used to discover bioactive natural products that may lead to the developing of new antimicrobials.