Antibacterial and Antifungal Properties of Brahmi

Scientific Study from the year 2016 in the subject Agrarian Studies, grade: 1.5, Mar Augusthinose College, language: English, abstract: Fungal and bacterial infections have increased rapidly and the wide uses of synthetic medicines have cytotoxicity on host and made drug resistance among the pathogen. The antifungal and antibacterial analysis of Bacopa monnieri (Linn) Pennell (Brahmi) was conducted in the present investigation. Various extracts (water, methanol, acetone, petroleum ether and chloroform) of dried Brahmi leaves and stem were tested against two strains of fungi- Aspergillus niger and Candida albicans as well as bacterial strains. The antibacterial and antifungal activity of different plant extracts was determined by agar well-diffusion method using Muller hinton agar and Sabouraud dextrose agar. The methanol extracts of Brahmi leaves shows inhibition zones on Aspergillus niger (12.3 +/- 0.6), Candida albicans (12.3 +/- 0.6), Staphylococcus species (12.3 +/- 0.6) and Bacillus species (12.3 +/- 0.6). Water extract does not seem to have any good antimicrobial activity against all above mentioned the test microorganisms. The present in vitro investigation results shows that the extracts of Brahmi leaves and stems show good antifungal and antibacterial activity. The study also concludes that methanol and acetone extracts showed good higher efficacy of the bioactive compounds.