Antimicrobial activity of Taverniera Abyssinica A. Rich against human pathogenic bacteria and fungi

Medicinal plants represent a rich source of antimicrobial agents. Even though hundreds of plant species have been tested for antimicrobial activities, the enormous mass of them have not been adequately evaluated. Taverniera abyssinica A. Rich is a widely used Ethiopian endemic medicinal plant commonly known under the local name of “Dingetegna”. Medicinal plant preparations are generally very popular in developing countries with a long tradition in the use of them. Root of the medicinal plant was extracted by maceration method using three different extraction solvents. Disc diffusion assay and agar dilution method were used to determine antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus fecalis and Escherichia coli and clinical isolate of Candida albicans and Aspergillus flavus. To compare extraction solvents and the difference in sensitivity of test microorganisms, one-way analysis of variance was used. T. abyssinica A. Rich extracts exhibited remarkable difference in antimicrobial activity between water and alcohol extract. On the other hand there were little differences in antimicrobial activities of extracts obtained using ethanol and methanol as solvents. As a whole, extracts showed better antimicrobial activity against S. aureus, E. faecalis and C. albicans while E. coli and A. flavus were the most resistant microorganisms to this medicinal plant. Antimicrobial activity of the medicinal plant varies with extraction solvent and tested microorganisms. Even though the local people are using this medicinal plant in treatment of various types of infectious disease, the medicinal plant has little antimicrobial activity. S. aureus was the most sensitive microorganism as compared to other tested microorganisms.   Key words: Antibacterial, Antifungal, Crude extract, Ethiopia, Taverniera abyssinica A. Rich