Antimicrobial activity in fruit extract of Psoralea corylifolia L. on pathogenic organisms

The increasing prevalence of drug-resistant pathogens has gained the attention of pharmaceutical and scientific communities towards potential antimicrobial agents from plant derived sources. The present research work has been undertaken to study the antimicrobial activity of the methanol extract of Psoralea corylifolia L. against some human pathogens like Escherichia coii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhimurium Staphylococcus aureus, Shigella flexneri, Streptococcus pneamoniae, Klebsiella pneumonia and fungi Aspergillus niger by using agar well diffusion method. Inhibition zones ranged between 4.l2 ± 0.22 16.24 ± 0.11 mm. Fruit extract inhibited the growth of all tested microorganisms with large zones of inhibition. The standard antibiotics chloramphenicol and miconuzole nitrate were found to have zone of inhibitions 10.05 ±0.12-24.12 ±0.20 mm at the concentration of 30 ug/ml. In contrast, the inhibition zone of methanol (negative control) was almost zero for all the tested microorganisms. The spectrum activity of methanolic extract of this plant could be a possible source to obtain new and effective herbal medicines to treat various infectious diseases.