Antimicrobial Screening of Medicinal Plant – Artemisia pallens

Artemisia pallens Wall, a medicinally important plant, belongs to family Asteraceae. It is This plant is used in Ayurvedic system of medicines. In order to search for antimicrobial activity of secondary metabolites, screening of aerial parts of A. pallens was carried out. Air shade dried powdered plant material was extracted using solvents of increasing polarity from non polar ( n-hexane ) , semi-polar ( chloroform ) to polar ( methanol ). Extracts were analyzed for their antibacterial capacity against six bacterial strains and an yeast strain. The antibacterial activity was determined by using disc diffusion method. Bacillus cereus was found to be more susceptible strain. Only methanol extract of Artemisia pallens showed the activity. Therefore, this was selected for further investigation to determine its therapeutic potential.