Abstract:
In recent years, there has been interest in researching and developing new antibiotics from
various sources to fight microbial infections. Antibacterial properties are found in numerous
medicinal plants that can prevent the growth and virulency of different microbes during
infections. Thus, there is a great deal of attention given to examining antimicrobial activity of
herbal material and its evaluating methods. Syzygium cumini L. Skeels is an important medicinal
plant which grows in the Jaffna district. In its various parts, there are numerous phytochemical
compounds that have multiple pharmacological effects such as hypoglycemic, diuretics,
analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and gastro-protective effects. The main objective of
this study was to investigate the antimicrobial effect of ethanolic, methanolic, and aqueous
extracts of different parts of S. cumini plant. The agar well diffusion method was used to
analyze antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas
aeruginosa while the standard disk diffusion method was used for the in-vitro antifungal
activity against Mucor sp., Aspergillus sp., and Fusarium sp. Based on the antibacterial activity
results, it was found that the ethanolic seed coat extract had the largest inhibition zone diameter
against S. aureus (27.56±0.46 mm) while the aqueous extract of bark showed the lowest
inhibition zone against Pseudomonas sp. (11.50±0.66 mm). Based on the antifungal activity
results, it was revealed that the methanolic extract of the leaf had the lowest diameter of
inhibition of fungal growth against Fusarium sp. (15.87±0.73 mm) while the aqueous extract of
bark showed the highest diameter of inhibition against Aspergillus sp. (37.93±0.80 mm). The
study found that the ethanolic seed coat and methanolic leaf extracts had greater antibacterial
and anti-fungal activities than the other extracts obtained from the plant. In the future, drug
leads may be generated for treating infectious diseases caused by microbes using the seed coat
and leaves of S. cumini plant.
