Antibacterial activity of crude ethanolic extract and solvent fractions of Ficus pseudopalma Blanco leaves

To investigate the antimicrobial properties of Ficus pseudopalma (F. pseudopalma) leaf extracts. The antibacterial properties of F. pseudopalma Blanco crude ethanolic leaf extract, and its solvent fractions chloroform (CF), ethylacetate (EF) and water fractions were evaluated through antibacterial agar disc diffusion method and the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined. Five Gram-positive and five Gram-negative bacteria were used for the study. The zone of inhibitions obtained from the antibacterial agar diffusion disc method showed that CF, and EF exhibited active (14-19 mm) antibacterial activity against Bacillus subtilis UST CMS 1011, and partially active (10-13 mm) antibacterial properties against both Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 and Staphylococcus epidermidis ATCC 12228. Water exhibited no antibacterial properties against all microorgranisms tested. The MIC values observed for all Gram-positive bacteria tested were >5 mg/mL, except for Bacillus subtilis whose MIC value was 5 mg/mL for CF and EF fractions. All extracts exhibited no antibacterial activity against Gram-negative bacteria. From this study, it can be concluded that F. pseudopalma extracts may be a potential antibacterial agent against Gram-positive bacteria. The antibacterial property may be attributed to flavonoids and terpenoids present in the crude ethanolic extract, CF and EF.