Abstract:
In the treatment of diabetes mellitus, the traditional medical system of Sri Lanka has
demonstrated to be far more effective, with less side effects and lower costs than modern synthetic
medications. Ethnobotanical research is also necessary to learn about the world's traditional usage for
treating chronic illness. Therefore, the present evaluation was aimed to compare the antimicrobial
activity between the ethanolic leaves extracts of Murraya koenigii, Tinospora cordifolia, Enicostemma
littorale and Gymnema sylvestre which are commonly found in Jaffna District against three different
bacterial species such as Staphylococcus sp., Enterococcus sp. and Escherichia coli sp. by determining
zone of inhibition using agar well diffusion method and compared with standard antibiotics. All
experiments were conducted in triplicate. The statistical analysis was carried out using one-way
Analysis of variance and values were expressed as the mean ± standard deviation. Results showed all
the tested leaf extracts showed promising antibacterial activity against all the bacterial strains which
was comparable with positive control Streptomycin. E.littorale showed the highest zone of inhibition
diameter against Enterococcus sp. (14.08±2.46 mm). M.koenigii showed the highest zone of inhibition
diameter against Staphylococcus sp. (8.96±2.49 mm) and E.coli (9.67±0.996 mm). Present study
determined that the ethanol leaf extracts of Murraya sp. and Enicostemma sp. showed the highest
antibacterial activity than other two species against all tested bacteria. Therefore, E.littorale and
Enicostemma sp. can be used for developing therapeutic agents for the treatment of infectious diseases
caused by microbes in future.
