ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF Ocimum tenuiflorum (Tulsi) BY USING LEAF EXTRACT AGAINST DIFFERENT BACTERIAL STRAINS”

MICROBIOLOGY

From ancient times, plants are used as an important source of medicines. The large number of drugs that we use today are derived from plant materials like leaves, steams, roots etc. Ocimum sanctum is an aromatic plant and it belongs to the family Lamiaceae. The main advantage of using plant material for medicinal purpose is that they have very less side effects as compared to chemical drugs. Due to widespread emergence of resistance among microbial pathogens against currently available antibiotics, there is a need in medical world to discover novel antibiotics. In search of novel antimicrobial compounds, plants have been proven a good source. Tulsi plant is also known as “Queen of herbs”, and it is also one of the most cherished plants. For the prevention and treatment of many diseases,tulsi is a common herbal and cheap remedy. Active principles from plant origin have been used as medicinal compounds, from ancient times.In hindu culture, Tulsi plant is worshipped and also used for its medicinal values. The objective of this research was to analyse the antimicrobial activity of Ocimum tenuiflorum by using leaf extract against different bacterial strains. The antimicrobial activity of Ocimum tenuiflorum leaves was measured by Kirby-Bauer method. Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of various extracts and fractions of Ocimum tenuiflorum was also measured.The results of this study showed that Ocimum tenuiflorum leaves possessed antibacterial activities against isolated bacterial strains at the concentrations of 200 mg/ml, 400 mg/ml, and 800 mg/ml. From this study, it could be concluded that Ocimum tenuiflorum contains bioactive compounds that provides strong antibacterial activities against some microbes.

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