Preliminary Assessment of Phytochemical and Antimicrobial effect of Arjun (Terminalia arjuna) Bark

Abstract

The present study was carried out to evaluate the antibacterial activity of ethanolic bark extract from Terminalia arjuna on selected Gram positive and Gram negative bacterial strains. Phytochemical screening of Terminalia arjuna bark should also be done. For evaluation of antibacterial activities disc diffusion technique is used. In antibacterial experiment, bark extract showed 7mm to 8.5mm of diameter of zone inhibition against tested four Gram (+) bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, B. polymyxa, Bacillus cereus and Bacillus subtilis and one Gram (-) bacteria such as Shigella flexneri. The result show that antimicrobial activity of phytochemical extract of Terminalia arjuna were concentration dependent(1.0mg/disc and 5.0mg/disc) on the bactedrial strains tested.Further, the results depicts that bark extracts of Terminalia arjuna could be used as a potential source of antimicrobial agents against the bacterial strains tested. We recommended further research is essential based on such plant bark for possible isolation and characterization of various chemical active substance