Antibacterial Activity of Leaves and Flowers of Ipomoea aquatica Forsk. (Convolvulacea)

Abstract

Man has been using herbs and plants products for combating diseases since times immemorial. Up till now, however, all antimicrobial substances from higher plants have been found either to be toxic to animals or not competitive therapeutically with the products of microbial origin, due to their low potency and narrow spectrum. Therefore, no antimicrobial compound from a higher plant has yet come into significant clinical use. Research, however, continues in the hope of finding plant antimicrobials that are effective for the systemic or topical treatment of human or agricultural infections. Extracts of leaves and flowers of Ipomoea aquatica were investigated for their antibacterial activity using agar cup method on the gram positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus. The preliminary phytochemical screening of methanol extracts of leaves of I. aquatica showed the presence of flavonoids while that of the flowers showed presence of flavonoids and anthocyanins. The methanol extracts of both leaves and flowers were showed the antibacterial activity that may be due to flavonoids present in these extracts.