Antibacterial Evaluation and Phytochemical Analysis of Betula utilis D. Don Against Some Human Pathogenic Bacteria

Successive solvent extract viz., petroleum ether, chloroform, methanol, ethanol and water extracts of bark of Betula utilis D. Don was evaluated for antibacterial activity, against fourteen important bacterial strains by agar-well diffusion method. Methanol extract was showed significant activity against all the tested bacteria followed by ethanol and aqueous extract. Chloroform and Petroleum ether extracts did not show any activity. The antibacterial activity is more significant in solvent extracts compared to aqueous extract in all the plants indicating that the active principle responsible for antibacterial activity is more soluble in organic solvents. Comparison of the inhibitory activity of the extracts with the antibiotics gentamicin revealed that methanol extracts of Betula utilis was significantly higher than that of the antibiotics tested. The results suggest that Betula utilis is scientifically validate the use of this plant in the traditional medicine for isolation and characterization of the active principle for further exploitation in medical microbiology.