Antibacterial potentiality of Acalypha indica against pathogen causing food poisoning / Nabillah Shamsudin

Acalypha indica is a weed that can be easily found by the roadside and wasteland. It is actually a type of medicinal plant that been used enormously in India for ages especially
in Ayurveda practice. Staphlocoocus aureus, Salmonella typhi and Escherichia coli are foodborne antibiotic-resistant pathogenic bacteria. Emergence of antimicrobial resistant cause the need to develop new antibiotic and plant source is believe to be the answer for this question. Thus, antibacterial potentiality of Acalypha indica was investigated against the three strains of bacteria using three different solvent methanol, hexane and ethyl acetate. Phytochemical analysis were carried out to identify the secondary metabolites content that contribute to its antibacterial activity. Recent studies reveal methanol and hexane extract of Acalypha indica shows promising potential in inhibiting the pathogen effectively at 100mg/ml concentration which may be due to presence of triterpenes, phenolic and tannins based on the phytochemical screening results.